LD 
393 

,Ail 
1875 


„Iiiii|f 

1822  01164  7494 


LIBRARY    I 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALIFORNIA 

SAN  DILGO 


Ur.'iVEnSITY  OF  CALIFC'RNIA.  SAN  DIEGG 
LA  JOLLP,  CALIFORNIA 


UNIVERSITY   OF    CALIFORN 


3  1822  01164  7492 


3ic 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

in  2008  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/bereacollegekyinOOcinc 


Berea  College,  Ky. 


An  Interesting  f} 


NTERESTING    TTISTORY. 


siipif^noy'iiii  sj  rjfE  y^TiC-vjijrTjAL  committjbs. 


1873. 


CINCINNATI  : 

Ebo  Btieet  Printing  Company,  178  and  178  £kn  8ti«ei. 

1876. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  In  the  year  1875,  hx 
E.  H.  FAIRCHILD, 

In  the  OfBca  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  Waihlngton,  D.  C. 

Stereotyped  by  Ogden,  Campbell  &  Co.,  Cincinnati. 


Berea  College. 


ITS  LOCATION. 

Many  persons  have  examiued  the  maps  for  the 
location  of  Berea,  but  have  failed  to  find  it. 
Berea  is  a  small  village  of  about  five  hundred 
inhabitants,  considerably  scattered,  and  of  some- 
what recent  growth  ;  and  the  inhabitants  are 
none  of  them  wealthy,  and  many  of  them  poor. 
There  are  not  more  than  a  dozen  good  bouses  in 
the  village.  If  these  reasons  do  not  sufliciently 
account  for  the  absence  of  Berea  from  recent 
maps  of  Kentucky,  the  same  reason  which  has 
hitherto  excluded  the  College  from  the  State 
School  Superintendent's  Annual  Report  may  bo 
added. 

Berea  College  is  near  the  center  of  the  State, 
in  the  southern  part  of  Madison  County,  one  of 
the  most  populous  counties  of  the  State.  From 
Cincinnati  it  is  reached  by  the  Kentucky  Central 
liuilroad  to  Lexington  one  hundred  miles,  thence 

(3) 


4  BEBEA   COLLEGE,    KT. 

by  stage  to  Richmond  twenty-six  miles,  thence 
by  hack  to  Berea  fourteen  miles.  From  Louis- 
ville it  is  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles  by 
the  Richmond  Branch  of  the  Louisville  and 
Nashville  Railroad.  Our  nearest  depot  is  Paint 
Lick,  eight  miles  distant.  We  leave  here  at  five 
o'clock  A.  M.,  and  reach  Cleveland,  Chicago  or 
Pittsburg,  via  Louisville  and  Cincinnati,  the  next 
morning.  A  macadamized  road  connects  Berea 
with  Richmond,  and  thence  with  all  the  large 
towns  of  the  State.  Kentucky  excels  most,  if 
not  all,  other  States  in  macadamized  roads.  Its 
common  roads  are  generally  very  poor.  It  is 
not  an  uncommon  thing  for  count}^  roads  to  be 
obstructed  by  farm  gates  as  often  as  once  in  a 
mile  or  two.  But  the  gates  are  so  constructed 
that  a  horseback  rider  can  open  them  without 
alighting. 

IS  IT  WELL  LOCATED? 

Berea  ridge  is  about  two  miles  long,  of  ir- 
regular shape,  sometimes  narrow  and  sometimes 
wide,  and  sometimes  branching,  and  elevated 
about  fifty  feet  above  the  surrounding  coun- 
try. The  College  grounds  are  about  the  center 
of  the  ridge,  and  on  its  widest  part.  Toward 
the  south  and  east  we  look  out  upon  a  moun- 
tainous region,  broken  into  more  than  a  dozen 
distinct  knobs  from  four  hundred  to  eight  hun- 


ITS    LOCATION'.  0 

dred  feet  high,  and  from  one  mile  to  six  miles 
distant.  Each  has  its  distinct  name,  and  all  are 
favorite  resorts  of  companies  seeking  exercise 
and  pleasure.  To  the  north  and  west  lie  the 
rich,  undulating  blue  grass  lauds,  famous  every- 
where for  their  hemp,  pastures,  cattle,  horses 
and  magnificently  formed  men.  These  lands 
come  within  a  mile  of  Berea,  and  spread  out 
from  sixty  to  eighty  miles  to  the  north  and 
west. 

The  autumn  scenery  viewed  from  the  observa- 
tory of  the  Ladies'  Hall  is  exquisitely  beautifcd. 
It  is  hardly  surpassed  by  any  scenery  on  the 
Hudson  River.  The  air  is  perfectly  pure,  every 
lot  is  easily  drained,  the  water  is  soft  and  gener- 
ally good,  and  is  obtained  by  digging  about  fif- 
teen feet.  The  climate  is  delightful,  especially 
from  April  to  December.  There  are,  of  course, 
stormy,  windy  days,  and  long,  hot  days  in  the 
summer;  but  I  have  never  experienced  a  day 
more  oppressively  hot  here  than  in  Chicago.  The 
nights  are  always  comfortable  when  the  days  are 
hottest. 

The  soil  is  not  rich,  but  with  proper  culture 
is  very  good  for  gardens  and  fruit.  This  season, 
for  the  first  time  in  forty  years  or  more,  nearly 
all  fruit  is  destroyed  by  freezing  blasts  in  April, 
from  the  ice  and  snow  of  the  IS'orth. 


6  BEEEA   COLLEGE,   KT. 

But  the  location  is  well  chosen  for  a  more  im- 
portant reason.  It  is  on  the  line  of  separation 
between  two  classes  of  people,  as  unlike  each 
other  in  their  physical  development,  their  habits 
of  life,  and  their  views  of  society,  as  if  they 
belonged  to  distinct  races.  And  when  we  see 
them,  on  the  morning  of  our  Annual  Com- 
mencement, pouring  in  by  hundreds,  the  rich  in 
their  carriages  from  the  plains,  and  the  poor 
from  the  mountains  on  horses  and  mules,  and, 
meeting  on  this  common  ground,  we  feel  that 
the  place  was  selected  by  Him  who  is  "  the  Maker 
of  them  all."  And  when  we  look  upon  the 
crowd  of  two  thousand  people,  white  and  col- 
ored, rich  and  poor,  learned  and  ignorant,  min- 
gling without  distinction  and  with  perfect  order, 
listening  to  speakers  and  singers  of  all  shades  of 
complexion,  the  words  on  the  College  seal  seem 
wonderfully  appropriate':  "God  hath  made  of 
one  blood  all  nations  of  men."  Twenty  miles 
from  this  line,  on  either  side,  such  a  company 
could  not  be  gathered. 

ORIGIN  OF  THE  COLLEGE— MR.  FEE. 

Rev.  John  G.  Fee  was  born  in  Bracken  County, 
Kentucky,  in  1816.  His  Either,  a  farmer,  was  a 
member  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  and  the 
owner  of  thirteen  slaves.     John  early  embraced 


ITS  OBIGIN.  7 

religion,  and  commenced  preparation  for  the 
ministry.  He  entered  College  at  Augusta,  Ken- 
tucky, studied  two  years  at  Oxford,  Ohio,  and 
graduated  at  Augusta.  His  theological  course 
was  taken  at  Lane  Seminary,  Ohio;  where, after 
much  discussion,  with  earnest  prayer  for  light, 
terrible  mental  struggles  and  many  tears,  he  be- 
came convinced  of  the  great  evil  and  sinfulness 
of  American  slavery.  With  a  full  sense  of  the 
obloquy  and  danger  he  must  meet,  he  conse- 
crated himself  to  preach  the  gospel  of  impartial 
love  in  his  native  State. 

He  first  labored  several  months  with  his  pa- 
rents; but  failing  to  persuade  them  to  liberate 
their  slaves,  with  great  sadness  he  relinquished 
the  effort,  and  carried  the  gospel  to  others.  His 
father,  a  severe  man,  disowned  and  disinherited 
him,  giving  him  one  dollar  in  his  will.  His 
mother  wept  over  her  deluded  son.  He  contin- 
ued to  visit  his  parents,  though  twice  the  door 
was  shut  against  him.  Afterward  he  was  in- 
vited in.  Learning  that  his  father  was  about  to 
sell  a  female  slave,  wife  of  a  slave  man  of  the 
family,  and  a  member  of  the  same  church  with 
her  master,  he  bought  her  at  the  price  demanded, 
and  liberated  her.  His  father  was  very  angry 
because  he  would  not  sell  her  back. 

Before  he  became  an  abolitionist   his   father 


8  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KY. 

had  given  him  a  farm,  in  Indiana,  which  he  sold 
for  two  thousand  four  hundred  dollars,  and 
spent  the  whole  in  buying  this  slave,  in  publish- 
ing an  antislavery  manual,  and  in  self-support. 
His  people,  in  Lewis  County,  promised  him  one 
hundred  dollars  for  preaching,  but  being  offended 
by  an  antislavery  sermon,  very  mild  and  gentle, 
paid  him  but  twenty-five  dollars.  For  two  years 
he  received  two  hundred  dollars  annually  from 
the  American  Home  Missionary  Society.  But 
finding  that  this  society  was  aiding  fifty-two 
slaveholding  churches,  he  felt  that  he  could  not 
conscientiously  solicit  contributions  for  it,  and 
hence  must  decline  to  receive  its  support. 

On  joining  the  Presbytery  he  made  a  full 
statement  of  his  antislavery  convictions.  Aa 
these  convictions  ripened,  his  antislavery  efforts 
multiplied.  His  church,  in  Lewis  County,  passed 
resolutions  denouncing  slavery  as  sinful,  and  re- 
fusing fellowship  with  slaveholders.  The  Synod 
reviewed  this  action,  and  censured  Mr.  Fee  for 
disturbing  the  peace  of  Zion,  and  introducing  a 
test  of  membership  not  known  to  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  Presbyterian  Church.  Assured  by 
the  Presbytery  that  "repentance  on  their  part 
was  hopeless,"  after  fully  stating  his  views,  he 
withdrew,  and  received  a  qualified  letter  of  dis- 
mission.    The  publication  of  these  facts  in  the 


ITS    ORIGIN.  9 

New  York  Evangelist  brought  him  to  the  notice 
of  the  American  Missionary  Association,  and  its 
aid  was  offered  him.  From  that  time  to  this,  a 
period  of  twcntj-six  years,  he  has  been  supported 
wholly  or  chiefly  by  that  society. 

In  Lewis  and  Bracken  Counties  he  labored 
eight  years,  and  organized  three  antislavery 
churches.  At  the  request  of  Cassius  M.  Clay  he 
sent  a  box  of  the  antislavery  manuals,  which 
were  scattered  through  Madison  County.  The 
result  was,  the  people  invited  him  here,  where, 
after  preaching  nine  sermons,  he  organized  a 
church  which  refused  fellowship  with  slavehold- 
ers, and  after  one  year  he  became  its  pastor. 
This  relation  he  has  now  sustained  twenty  years. 
There  was  little  to  encourage  when  he  came. 
The  place  was  a  wilderness.  It  was  inviting 
chiefly  because  it  was  central. 

The  same  reasons  which  led  to  the  organiza- 
tion of  antislavery  churches  demanded  an  anti- 
slavery  school.     This  was  organized  in  1855. 

Its  first  teacher  was  Wm.  E.  Lincoln,  who 
came  from  England  to  pursue  his  studies  in 
Oberlin  College.  He  was  one  of  the  Wellington 
rescuers,  and  has  since  been  a  preacher  in  Ohio, 
and  is  now  in  the  State  of  New  York.  Its  next 
teacher  was  Otis  B.  Waters,  also    a  student  of 


THE  OLD  GLADE  MEETING-HOUSE. 


ITS  OBiaiN.  11 

Oberlin  College.  Ho  has  for  several  years  been 
a  professor  in  Benzonia  College,  Michigan. 

In  185G  Mr.  Fee  experienced  a  series  of  mobs 
in  this  region.  He  had  before  this  been  mobbed 
in  Lewis,  Mason  and  Bracken  Counties.  The 
first  of  this  series  was  at  Dripping  Springs,  the 
next  near  Mt.  Vernon,  the  third,  and  most  vio- 
lent, was  near  Texas,  in  Madison  County.  Mr. 
Fee  was  preaching  on  the  subject  of  Christian 
union,  and  was  accompanied  by  Robert  Jones,  a 
native  of  the  county,  who  was  acting  as  a  col- 
porteur of  the  American  Missionary  Association. 
lie  was  also  sustained  by  the  two  Messrs.  Field 
and  Mr.  Marsh.  There  was  apprehension  of  dan- 
ger, and  Mr.  Fee  had  been  consulted  as  to  the 
propriety  of  carrying  guns.  He  said:  "iTo;  if 
I  am  disturbed  I  will  appeal  to  the  courts."  He 
believed  in  the  right  of  eelf-defense,  but  opposed 
the  practice  of  carrying  arms,  and  believed  they 
were  oftener  a  source  of  danger  than  a  means  of 
safety. 

The  sermon  had  commenced  when  a  mob  of 
sixty  men,  with  pistols  and  guns,  surrounded  the 
house.  One  came  in  and  said  to  Mr.  Fee :  "  There 
are  men  here  who  wish  you  to  stop  and  come 
out."  lie  replied:  "I  am  engaged  in  the  exer- 
cise of  a  constitutional  right  and  a  religious  duty; 
please  do  not  interrupt,"  and  preached  on.     The 


12  BEKEA  COLLEGE,    KY. 

man  went  out  and  soon  two  others  returned  and 
demanded  that  he  come  out.  He  preached  on. 
They  seized  him  and  dragged  him  out,  no  resist- 
ance being  made.  A  man  with  a  rope  swore 
they  would  hang  him  to  the  first  tree,  unless  he 
would  promise  to  leave  the  county  and  never 
return.  He  replied :  "  I  am  in  your  hands.  I 
would  not  harm  you ;  if  you  harm  me,  the  re- 
sponsibility is  with  you.  I  can  make  no  pledge; 
duty  to  God  and  my  country  forbid."  They 
swore  they  would  duck  him  in  the  Kentucky 
River  as  long  as  life  was  in  him,  unless  he  would 
promise  to  leave  the  county.  He  said  :  "  I  am 
a  native  of  the  State.  I  believe  slavery  is  wrong. 
I  am  acting  for  the  good  of  my  country  and  all 
her  people.  You  will  know  my  motives  at  the 
judgment."  He  had  proceeded  but  a  few  mo- 
ments when  one  exclaimed :  "  We  didn't  come  to 
hear  a  sermon;  let  us  do  our  work."  They 
stripped  Robert  Jones  naked,  bent  him  down, 
and  gave  him  thirty-three  lashes  with  three  syca- 
more rods.  He  was  so  injured  that  he  could  not 
walk  the  next  day.  But  he  made  no  pledges 
and  did  not  leave.  They  said  to  Mr.  Fee :  "  We 
will  give  you  five  hundred  lashes  if  you  do  not 
leave  the  county  and  promise  never  to  return." 
He  knelt  down  and  said :  "  I  will  take  my  suffer- 
ing; I  can  make  no  pledges."     The  whip  was 


ITS   ORIGIN.  13 

raised  above  him,  but  one  cried :  •'  Don't  strike." 
The  man  with  the  whip  replied :  "  I  feel  that  I 
ought  to.  but  I  don't  like  to  go  against  my  party. 
Get  up  and  go  home  " — with  an  oath. 

With  Jones  on  his  horse  behind  him,  and  a 
guard  in  front  and  rear,  he  rode  three  miles  when 
the  mob  left  them.  They  went  into  the  wood, 
road  the  fourth  chapter  of  Acts,  and  prayed. 
That  night  he  preached  in  tlie  house  of  Mr. 
Jones*  cousin,  and  both  the  man  and  his  wife 
covenanted  to  be  the  Lord's. 

The  Berea  Church  became  terribly  alarmed 
and  advised  Mr.  Fee  to  leave  the  State.  For  four 
weeks  no  man  but  Ham.  Rawlings  entered  his 
yard:  none  but  women  attended  church.  That 
brave  man,  Cassius  M.  Clay,  though  still  friendly 
to  Mr.  Fee,  notwithstanding  their  difference  on 
the  higher  law  question  (Mr.  Fee  holding  that  a 
law  confessedly  contrary  to  the  law  of  God  ought 
not  to  be  enforced),  advised  him  to  leave.  But 
he  continued  his  labors.  Mr.  Waters  continued 
his  school,  and  the  excitement  gradually  died 
away.  In  the  meantime  two  lawyers  had  been 
engaged  to  prosecute  in  behalf  of  Jones.  The 
mob  met  in  Richmond  and  swore  they  would 
give  five  hundred  laches  to  any  lawyer  who 
would  prosecute  the  case.  The  grand  jury  never 
inquired  into  it     Thirteen  months  after  the  mob 


14  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KY. 

Prof.  Rogers  closed  a  session  of  the  school  with 
ninety-six  pupils  and  an  exhibition,  at  which 
there  were  five  hundred  in  attendance. 

Four  of  the  principal  leaders  of  the  mob  soon 
came  to  violent  deaths.  So  it  was  with  all  the 
mobs.  Several  of  the  most  active  in  them  soon 
died  by  violence.  It  became  a  common  saying 
among  them :  "  Old  master  is  against  us." 

PROF.  ROGERS 

Is  a  native  of  Cornwall,  Connecticut.  lie  pre- 
pared for  College  at  Williams  Academy,  gradu- 
ated at  Oberlin,  taught  two  or  three  years  in 
New  York  City,  and  took  his  theological  course 
at  Oberlin.  Being  about  to  return  west  from  a 
visit  to  New  York,  he  was  requested  to  take  a 
company  of  orphans  to  Roseville,  Illinois.  lie 
preached  on  Sunday,  and  on  Monday  was  re- 
quested to  remain.  From  this  pleasant  field, 
with  numerous  friends,  and  nine  hundred  dollars 
a  year,  he  heard  the  call  from  Kentucky,  and  iu 
1858  came  to  the  work  in  Berea,  under  the  com- 
mission of  the  American  Missionary  Association, 
at  a  salary  of  four  hundred  dollars,  walking 
eighty  miles  of  the  distance  from  Maysville.  In 
a  rude  school-house,  with  a  single  un]_)lastcred 
room,  without  desks  or  the  most  common  con- 
veniences, be  opened  a  select  school  with  fifteen 


ITS   ORIGIN.  15 

pupils.  With  an  energy,  enthusiasm,  buoyancy, 
skill  and  love  not  wholly  his  own,  ho  addressed 
himself  to  the  work.  Desks  were  supplied, 
maps  and  charjts  graced  the  walls,  music  and 
lectures  were  introduced.  The  young  people- 
were  charmed;  visitors  from  many  miles  away 
frequented  the  school,  and  before  the  close  of 
the  term  a  hundred  names  were  enrolled.  Mrs. 
Rogers,  a  charming  little  woman  from  Philadel- 
phia, leaving  her  babe  during  school  hours  with 
a  nurse,  went  to  the  aid  of  her  husband  aud 
added  greatly  to  the  enthusiasm. 

The  interest  culminated  in  the  exhibition  at 
the  close  of  the  term.  Teachers,  pupils,  and  the 
whole  community  gave  themselves  heartily  to 
preparation  for  the  anticipated  event.  The  peo- 
ple, proud  of  their  school,  and  the  wonderful 
attainments  of  their  children,  and  hopeful  as  to 
the  future  prosperit}'^  of  their  place,  volunteered 
a  public  dinner  to  all  who  should  attend.  The 
exercises  were  held  under  a  sylvan  bower,  con- 
structed with  exquisite  taste.  The  pillars  were 
grand  old  oaks,  festooned  with  flowers.  The  light 
was  subdued  by  the  thick  matting  of  leaves,  and 
the  joyous  faces  of  a  hundred  pupils  upon  the 
extensive  platform  spread  a  charm  over  the 
whole  audience,  the  largest  ever  assembled  iu 
the  settlement;  though  "the  glades"  at  the  foot 


16  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KY. 

of  tbe  ridge  had  long  been  a  place  of  public 
gatherings  for  horse  races  and  political  speeches. 
The  hand  of  the  Lord  was  manifestly  in  it.  The 
closing  speaker,  a  leading  pupil,  in  reviewing 
the  term  and  pronouncing  his  valedictory,  was 
conapletely  overcome  with  emotion,  and  for  some 
moments  the  audience  were  in  tears. 

Brief,  but  enthusiastic  speeches  by  gentlemen 
from  a  distance  followed;  and  an  ex-legislator 
from  an  adjoining  county  privately  remarked: 
"If  this  school  goes  on,  Kentucky  is  bound  to 
become  a  free  State ;  but  I  am  going  to  hold  on 
to  my  niggers  as  long  as  I  can."  After  dinner 
a  subscription  was  raised  without  difficulty  to 
build  an  addition  to  the  school-house,  which 
still  stands  and  is  used  for  a  district  school. 

This  charming  day,  at  the  close  of  June,  1858, 
may  perhaps,  more  than  any  other,  be  regarded 
as  the  natal  day  of  Berea  College ;  although  not 
till  the  September  following  was  any  attempt 
made  to  organize  a  Board  of  Trustees,  and  not 
till  a  long  time  after  was  the  organization  com- 
pleted and  the  school  placed  under  its  care. 

The  second  term  of  the  school  was  opened  in 
September,  and  two  additional  teachers  were  em- 
ployed, Mr.  John  G.  Hanson  and  his  wife,  who 
brought  to  the  work  hearty  enthusiasm,  patient 
effort  and  full  faith  in  the  enterprise.   A  hundred 


THE  FIRST  COLLEGE  BUILDING. 


^=s^. 


18  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KY. 

pupils  were  gathered,  not  a  few  of  them  young 
men  of  line  abilities,  some  of  whom  have  since 
exercised  no  small  influence  as  teachers  and  pro- 
fessional men,  and  some  have  given  their  blood 
for  their  country.  Though  an  antislavery  spirit 
pervaded  the  school  and  the  place,  and  the  teach- 
ers expressed  their  sentiments  with  entire  free- 
dom and  boldness,  yet  such  was  the  reputation 
of  the  school  and  such  the  joyous  atmosphere 
that  pervaded  it,  that  many  young  people  from 
slaveholding  families  were  attracted  to  it,  and 
not  a  few  became  insensibly  enamored  with  the 
love  of  liberty. 

During  this  term,  in  the  Young  Men's  Literary 
Society,  the  question  was  long  and  earnestly 
discussed,  whether,  if  a  colored  person  should 
apply  for  admission  to  the  school,  he  should  be 
rejected.  This  was  the  first  public  discussion  of 
this  question.  It  had  previously  been  discussed 
and  settled,  as  will  appear,  at  a  meeting  held  for 
the  organization  of  a  College  Board  of  Trustees. 
Happily  the  question  was  not  embarrassed  by 
legal  considerations,  for  there  was  no  law  of 
Kentucky  forbidding  education  to  free  colored 
persons,  or  even  to  a  slave,  with  his  master's 
consent.  As  this  was  a  question  affecting  the 
whole  community,  it  became  a  topic  of  general 
interest.     The  opinion   of  all  the  teachers,   as 


ITS    ORIGIN.  19 

• 

well  as  of  him  who  was  the  father  of  the  com- 
munity, was  decided  and  uniform,  and  may  be 
expressed  in  a  single  declaration  of  the  Princi- 
'  pal  of  the  school:  "If  any  one  made  in  God's 
image  comes  to  get  knowledge  which  will  en- 
able him  to  understand  the  revelation  of  God  in 
Jesus  Christ,  he  can  not  be  rejected."  This  sen- 
timent was  not  acceptable  to  the  slaveholding 
families  that  patronized  the  school ;  and  though 
none  of  the  pupils  left  before  the  close  of  the 
term,  the  opposition  became  so  great  during  the 
vacation,  that  few  returned  at  the  opening  of 
the  third  term.  But  the  school  went  on  under 
the  original  teachers.  Increased  difficulties  only 
inspired  to  greater  efforts.  The  work  they  be- 
lieved was  of  God  and  could  not  fail. 

With  the  opening  of  the  fourth  term,  in  the 
fall  of  1859,  came  additional  encouragement. 
The  affection  of  the  former  pupils  had  not 
ceased ;  the  resolute  perseverance,  the  manifest 
faith  and  cheerful  hope  of  those,  who,  according 
to  ordinary  calculations,  should  have  been  dis- 
couraged, impressed  the  people  that  perhaps  a 
divine  power  was  sustaining  them,  and  they 
might  succeed.  But  before  the  close  of  the 
term  aa  event  occurred  in  Virginia  which  shook 
the  very  foundations  of  the  school,  though  it 
did  not  destroy  them.      Before   describing   the 


20  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KY. 

effects  of  the  John  Brown  raid,  as  felt  in  Beroa, 
we  will  return  and  take  up  a  thread  that  was 
dropped. 

TnE  COLLEGE  CHARTER  AND  CONSTI- 
TUTIOK 

The  first  effort  made  to  form  a  constitution 
for  the  College  of  which  Berea  school  was  re- 
garded the  embryo,  was  made  on  the  seventh  of 
September,  1858,  when  several  gentlemen  met 
for  that  purpose  at  Mr.  Fee's  residence,  and  ap- 
pointed him  Chairman  of  the  meeting,  J.  G. 
Uanson,  Secretary,  and  Mr.  Rogers  Chairman  of 
a  Committee  to  draw  up  the  proposed  constitu- 
tion. At  that  meeting  a  constitution  was  re- 
ported, discussed  and  agreed  upon,  and  signed 
by  those  present.  In  order  to  secure  the  co- 
operation of  gentlemen  who  could  not  be  pres- 
ent, the  meeting  adjourned  to  meet  in  December. 
The  meeting  was  held,  and  several  subsequent 
meetings,  but  it  was  not  till  the  following  July 
that  the  present  constitution,  essentially  the  same 
as  the  first,  was  adopted.  At  this  meeting,  after 
much  prayer,  three  topics  of  inquiry  were  con- 
sidered. First:  "Is  there  a  demand  for  a  per- 
manent College  of  such  a  character  as  wc  have 
in  view  here?"  Secondly:  "Are  wo  the  men 
called  of  God  to  carry  it  forward?"     Thirdly: 


OnARTER   AND   CONSTITUTION.  21 

"Is  it  to  be  for  God,  and  for  him  alone?"  By 
the  third  topic  of  inquiry  it  was  tlie  desire  of 
those  making  it  to  examine  themselves  and  see 
if,  80  far  as  their  knowledge  extended,  they  could 
give  up  all  seltish  motives  in  going  forward  with 
the  work.  Undoubtedly,  however  honest  they 
were,  Infinite  "Wisdom  saw  in  their  hearts  that 
which  when  developed  would  call  for  great  hu- 
miliation on  their  part  and  mercy  on  his;  but 
He  who  accepts  the  earnest  desire  to  do  His  will, 
did  not  despise  their  weakness  or  ignorance  of 
themselves,  of  which  they  have  had  occasion 
since  then  to  learn  not  a  little. 

After  days  of  discussion  upon  various  points, 
almost  all  of  them  pertaining  to  the  Christian 
character  of  the  school,  a  constitution  and  by- 
laws were  adopted.  Two  of  the  by-laws  will 
sufficiently  indicate  the  wishes  of  those  who 
were  planning  for  the  future  of  the  Institution: 

"  This  College  shall  be  under  an  influence 
strictly  Christian,  and,  as  such,  opposed  to  sec- 
tarianism, slaveholding,  caste,  and  every  other 
wrong  institution  or  practice," 

"The  object  of  this  College  shall  be  to  furnish 
the  facilities  for  a  thorough  education  to  all  per- 
sons of  good  moral  character,  at  the  least  possi- 
ble expense  to  the  same,  and  all  the  inducements 
and  facilities  for  manual  labor  which  can  reason- 


22  BEBEA   COLLEGE,    KY. 

ably  be  supplied  by  the  Board  of  Trustees  shall 
be  oflered  to  its  students.'' 

This  constitution  was  signed  by  Rev.  John  G. 
Fee,  Rev.  J.  S.  Davis,  Rev.  Geo.  Candee,  John 
Smith,  Wm.  Stapp,  T.  J.  Renfro,  John  Q.  Han- 
son and  Rev.  J.  A.  R.  Rogers,  and  four  other 
gentlemen  were  invited  to  unite  with  them  in 
taking  steps  to  obtain  a  charter  under  a  general 
law  of  the  State.  Many  difficulties  arose  in  ob- 
taining suitable  co-operation  and  completing  the 
preliminary  steps  for  obtaining  a  charter.  Mean- 
while a  tract  of  land,  which  was  felt  to  be  the 
most  desirable  for  the  College  ground,  was  offered 
for  sale.  Four  of  the  trustees,  on  their  own  re- 
sponsibility, purchased  the  tract,  containing  more 
than  a  hundred  acres,  for  one  thousand  eight 
hundred  dollars,  and  Mr.  Fee  was  asked  to  go 
East  to  obtain  funds  for  securing  the  same  for 
the  College.  It  was  while  he  was  absent  that 
the  John  Brown  raid  occurred,  which  had  so 
potent  an  influence  upon  the  future  of  the  Berea 
school. 

Before  this  raid,  as  has  been  already  stated, 
Berea  had  become  an  object  of  suspicion  and 
hatred.  Any  power  for  liberty  was  regarded 
with  great  jealousy,  and  if  it  was  in  the  form 
of  a  school  giving  promise  of  becoming  import- 
ant, it  was  generally  felt  that  it  must  be  put 


CHARTER   AND    CONSTITUTION.  23 

down.  Yet  in  Kentucky  there  was  enough  of 
the  old  traditional  love  of  free  speech  and  fair 
play  to  prevent  any  acts  of  violence  against  a 
school  intrenched  in  the  hearts  of  many,  and 
with  which  no  fault  could  be  found,  save  that  it 
was  exerting  an  influence  in  favor  of  freedom. 
But  when  John  Brown  made  his  raid,  it  was 
felt  by  some  that  an  opportunity  had  arisen  for 
the  suppression  of  the  school.  All  ISTorthern 
men  were  regarded  as  dangerous,  and  especially 
those  who  openly  and  fearlessly  opposed  slavery. 
Who  knew  but  that  John  Brown's  band  was 
only  one  of  a  hundred  others  scattered  through 
the  South  for  the  purpose  of  stirring  up  insur- 
rection among  the  slaves?  It  was  urged  that 
there  were  many  strong,  if  not  decisive,  proofs 
that  the  colony  at  Berea  was  one  whose  ultimate 
aim  was  violence.  A  number  of  families  were 
moving  into  Berea,  and  some  men  had  left  their 
families  behind.  Then  what  should  bring  them 
to  such  a  place  as  Berea,  where  the  soil  was  re- 
garded as  too  poor  to  enable  men  to  get  a  com- 
fortable living,  but  some  sinister  motive?  Again 
it  was  said  that  the  location  of  Berea,  at  the  base 
of  the  foot-hills  of  the  Cumberland  Mountains, 
wa^perfect  in  a  strategic  point  of  view,  and  that 
it  was  by  no  means  certain  that  the  Bereans 
could  not  exercise  a  controlling  influence  over 


24  BEKEA    COLLEGE,    KY. 

the  mountain  men.     J5y  reason  of  such  declara- 
tions, and  abundant  false  rumors,  and  the  real 
fear  produced  throughout  the  South  by  the  John 
Brown  raid,  many  were  reaHy  alarmed.    Women 
told  their  husbands  that  they  could  not  sleep  at 
night,  and  that  the  Jiereans  must  be  driven  out 
of  the  State.     It  was  announced  in  one  of  the 
papers  that  a  box  of  Sharpe's  rifles  had  been  in- 
tercepted on  the  way  to  Berea.     In  view  of  this 
fact  it  was  thought  prudent  by  some  gentlemen 
in    Richmond  to  examine  several   heavy  boxes 
containing  the   household   goods  of  Rev.  John 
Boughton,  who  had  moved  to  Berea.     Accord- 
ingly, at  night,  they  carefully  examined  some  of 
the  most  suspicious-looking  boxes  in  one  of  the 
warehouses.     At  first  all  seemed  to  be  right,  and 
the  boxes  to  contain  nothing  but  the  usual  family 
•goods;   finally,  however,  some  trepidation  may 
have  been  produced  by  the  discovery  of  what 
was  declared  to  be  an  "infernal  machine,"  which 
turned  out  to  be  a  large  set  of  Yankee  candle- 
molds.     In  consequence  of  this  state  of  things, 
several  organized  efi:urts  were  made  to  suppress 
the  school,  and  drive  those  who  were  directing 
it  out  of  the  State.     The  first  and  second  efforts 
for  uniting  the  people  of  Madison  County  ^s  a 
whole  for  this  despicable  work  proved  abortive. 
At  length  a  now  wave  of  terror  having  swept 


CHARTER   AND   CONSTITUTION.  25 

over  the  State,  and  the  people  having  become 
more  intensely  excited  by  virulent  and  false 
statements  in  the  newspapers  of  the  county  and 
other  parts  of  the  State,  a  mass  meeting  was  held 
at  the  Court  House  in  Richmond,  violent  speeches 
were  made,  and  a  committee  of  sixty-five,  com- 
posed of  the  wealthiest  and  "  most  respectable  " 
citizens  of  the  county,  was  appointed,  to  secure 
the  removal  from  the  State,  peacefully  if  possi- 
ble, within  ten  days,  of  Rev.  John  G.  Fee  and 
Rev.  J.  A.  R.  Rogers,  and  such  others  as  the 
committee  should  think  necessary  for  the  public 
quiet  and  safety.  A  long  address  to  the  people 
of  the  county  and  community  at  large  was 
adopted  by  the  meeting.  In  ttis  address  it  was 
set  forth  that  liberty  and  slavery  could  not  dwell 
together,  that  in  a  slave  State  men  advocating 
liberty  were  a  dangerous  element,  and  that,  as 
self-preservation  was  the  first  law  of  nations  as 
well  as  individuals,  and  that,  as  it  was  a  settled 
matter  that  Kentucky  was  to  remain  a  slave 
State,  it  was  essential  to  the  peace  of  the  com- 
monwealth that  the  school  at  Berea  should  be 
suppressed,  and  those  who  were  its  originators 
and  supporters  should  be  driven  from  the  State ; 
and  that,  although  this  could  not  be  done  by 
law,  necessity  was  higher  than  all  law.  It  was 
the  old  doctrine  of  Caiaphas,  truer  than  he  knew, 


26  BEREA   COLLEGE,   KT. 

that  the  few  must  suffer  for  the  good  of  the 
many.  Assuming  that  it  was  right  and  just 
that  Kentucky  should  be  perpetually  a  slave 
State,  the  argument  would  have  some  force.  But 
at  this  declaration  "  He  who  sitteth  in  the  heav- 
ens did  laugh."  Always,  just  as  wickedness 
secures  its  ends,  suddenly  they  fail. 

Meanwhile  the  people  of  Berea  were  having 
additional  experiences  in  their  life  of  trial.  The 
sdr  was  dark  with  threats.  It  did  not  sound 
pleasantly  in  the  ears  of  a  delicate  woman  to  be 
told  that  her  husband  was  to  be  hung  to  a  limb 
before  the  school-room  door.  The  Principal  of 
the  school  wrote  to  the  press  denying  the  asser- 
tions in  regard  to  _the  Bereans,  and  correcting 
the  false  report  of  Mr.  Fee's  speech  in  Brooklyn, 
but  could  not  get  a  hearing.  So  abundant  were 
the  threats  against  Mr.  Fee  that  he  was  advised 
not  to  return  to  the  State.  With  characteristic 
courage  he  determined  to  come,  but  was  provi- 
dentially hindered  by  an  accident  in  Cinciimati. 
The  people  of  Berea  gathered  together  every 
night  to  pray  for  God's  protection  and  guidance, 
and  most  marvelously  were  the  Scriptures  opened 
to  their  understanding.  They  could  now  easily 
see  why  Luther  felt  that  he  could  not  have  lived 
but  for  the  Hundred  and  eighteenth  Psalm.  The 
Thirty-seventh  Psalm  seemed  written  especially 


THE    MOB.  27 

for  them,  and  not  only  calmed  their  fears,  but 
cheered  their  hearts. 

At  length,  after  several  days  of  expectation, 
the  mob,  the  "organized  gentlemen,"  appeared. 
On  the  twenty-third  of  December,  1859,  while 
Mr.  Rogers'  family  were  at  dinner  in  the  cottage 
which  he  had  just  erected  in  the  woods  adjoin- 
ing the  grounds  selected  for  the  College,  and  not 
yet  surrounded  by  a  fence,  it  was  hastily  an- 
nounced that  the  men  had  come.  He  stepped 
to  the  front  door,  and  there  sixty  horsemen, 
more  or  less,  completely  armed,  were  forming 
themselves  in  wedge  shape  before  the  house.  He 
stepped  out  of  the  door,  and  at  once  the  leader 
of  the  band  came  up  and  delivered  to  him  a 
document,  demanding  in  the  name  of  the  com- 
mittee that  he  should  leave  the  county  within 
ten  days.  He  attempted  to  reason  with  the 
leader,  and  told  him  that  if  he  had  violated  any 
law  of  the  State,  he  was  wnlling  to  abide  the 
consequences,  that  he  was  quietly  laboring  for 
the  good  of  the  community  and  the  support  of 
his  family,  and  that  in  the  exercise  of  his  rights 
he  must  not  be  disturbed.  A  disturbance  arose 
in  the  crowd,  and  the  whole  company  then 
wheeled  and  went  to  ten  other  families,  most  of 
them  native  Kentuckians,  and  left  a  similar  doc- 
ument. Everything  was  done  in  as  orderly  and 
unobjectionable  a  manner  as  possible. 


28  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KT. 

Those  warned  to  leave  the  State,  and  others 
most  interested,  met  for  prayer  and  deliberation. 
Some  thought  that  when  persecuted  in  one  city 
it  was  duty  to  flee  to  another,  and  that  it  was 
plainly  the  part  of  wisdom  for  those  who  must 
cope  with  the  mass  of  the  people  if  they  re- 
mained, to  go  quietly  away.  Others  counseled 
to  remain  till  forcibly  removed.  No  decision  was 
reached.  On  the  following  day  it  was  decided  to 
appeal  to  the  Governor  of  the  State  for  protec- 
tion, though  with  scarcely  a  ray  of  hope  that  it 
would  be  of  any  avail.  As  the  petition  sets  forth 
briefly  the  facts  of  the  case,  it  is  given  entire : — 

To  His  Excellency,  the  Governor  of  the  State  of  Kentucky : 
We,  the  undersigned,  loyal  citizens  and  residents  of 
the  State  of  Kentucky  and  County  of  Madison,  do  re- 
spectfully call  your  attention  to  the  following  facts : 

1.  We  have  come  from  various  parts  of  this  and  ad- 
joining States  to  this  county,  with  the  intention  of  mak- 
ing it  our  home,  have  supported  ourselves  and  families 
by  honest  industry,  and  endeavored  to  promote  the  in- 
terests of  religion  and  education. 

2.  It  is  a  principle  with  us  to  "  submit  to  every  ordi- 
nance of  man  for  the  Lord's  sake,  unto  governors  as 
unto  them  that  are  sent  by  him  for  the  punishment  of 
evil-doers  and  the  praise  of  them  that  do  well,"  and  in 
accordance  with  this  principle  we  have  been  obedient  in 
all  respects  to  the  laws  of  this  State. 


THE   PETITION.  29 

3.  Within  a  few  weeks  evil  and  false  reports  have  been 
put  into  circulation,  imputing  to  us  motives,  words  and 
conduct  calculated  to  inflame  the  public  mind,  which 
imputations  are  utterly  false  and  groundless.  These  im- 
putations we  have  publicly  denied,  and  offered  every 
facility  for  the  fullest  investigation,  which  we  have  earn- 
estly but  vainly  sought. 

4.  On  Friday,  the  twenty-third  inst.,  a  company  of 
sixty-two  men,  claiming  to  have  been  appointed  by  a 
meeting  of  the  citizens  of  our  county,  without  any 
shadow  of  legal  authority,  and  in  violation  of  the  con- 
stitution and  laws  of  the  State  and  United  States,  called 
at  our  respective  residences  and  places  of  business,  and 
notified  us  to  leave  the  county  and  State,  and  be  without 
this  county  and  State  within  ten  days,  and  handed  us 
the  accompanying  document,  in  which  you  will  see  that 
unless  the  said  order  be  promptly  complied  with,  there 
is  expressed  a  fixed  determination  to  remove  us  by  force. 

In  view  of  these  facts,  which  we .  can  substantiate  by 
the  fullest  evidence,  we  respectfully  pray  that  you,  in  the 
exercise  of  the  power  vested  in  you  by  the  constitution, 
and  made  your  duty  to  use,  do  protect  us  in  our  rights 
as  loyal  citizens  of  the  State  of  Kentucky. 

J.  A.  R.  Rogers,        Swinglehurst  Life, 
J.  G.  Han.son,  John  Smith, 

I.  D  Reed,  E.  T.  Hayes, 

Jas.  S.  Davis,  Chas.  E.  Griffin, 

John  F.  Boughton,  A.  G.  W.  Parker, 

W.  H.  TORRY. 

Berea,  Madison  County,  Ky.,  December  24,  1859. 


30  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KT. 

The  petition  was  taken  by  two  of  their  num- 
ber to  Governor  Magoffin,  who  received  them 
courteously,  but  replied  that  the  public  mind 
was  deeply  moved  by  the  events  in  Virginia,  and 
that  he  could  not  engage  to  protect  them  from 
their  fellow-citizens,  who  had  resolved  that  they 
must  go. 

At  last  it  bec^ne  plain  to  all  that  they  must 
leave  the  State  for  the  present,  but  with  the  sure 
expectation  of  returning  again  in  due  time.  So 
confident  were  some  of  them  made,  by  the  Spirit 
of  God,  in  regard  to  their  return,  that  they 
doubted  it  scarcely  more  than  the  rising  of  the 
morrow's  sun.  They  believed  in  God  and  his 
righteousness,  and  his  love  of  the  poor  and  op- 
pressed, and  clearly  foresaw  that  such  conduct 
would  only  hasten  the  day  of  freedom.  They 
plainly  declared  to  friends  and  foes  that  they 
were  going  away,  but  that  they  should  return 
again.  They  had  no  disposition  to  sell  their 
homes.  They  counted  them  worth  not  a  dollar 
less  than  before  the  troubles  in  Virginia.  Sore 
were  the  partings  between  those  who  left  and 
those  who  remained. 

The  whole  community  gathered  as  the  exiles 
left,  and  under  the  broad  sky,  with  bared  heads 
and  trusting  hearts,  they  were  committed  to  the 
care  of  Almighty  God  by  Rev  George  Candee. 


THE   DEPARTURE.  31 

wlio  had  come  from  his  home  iu  Jackson  County 
to  cheer  with  his  undaunted  faith  those  who 
were  about  to  leave.  The  ten  families  which  left 
numbered  about  forty  persons,  and  were  merci- 
fully guided  by  the  God  of  all  grace  and  wisdom. 

They  went  in  various  directions,  and  engaged 
in  such  work  as  came  to  hand,  making  no  per- 
manent engagements,  but  waiting  the  call  of  God 
to  return  to  their  former  homes.  Soon  the  war 
broke  out,  and  the  exiles  plainly  saw  that,  if 
they  had  been  permitted  to  remain  in  Berea,  the 
school  must  have  been  suspended. 

Mr.  Fee  met  his  retiring  friends  in  Cincinnati 
and  fully  approved  their  course,  but  was  not  yet 
convinced  of  the  necessity  of  his  leaving  hia 
native  State.  He  went  over  to  Bracken  County 
to  fultill  an  appointment,  though  Mr.  Mallet,  a 
teacher  from  Oberlin,  had  recently  been  mobbed 
there,  and  Mr.  Davis,  a  preacher,  also  from  Ober- 
lin, had  been  mobbed  in  Lewis  County.  A 
county  meeting  was  called,  about  eight  hundred 
attended,  and  a  committee  of  sixty-two  warned 
hira  and  others  to  leave.  He  made  no  promises 
but  to  do  what  should  geem  to  be  duty.  All 
friends  advised  him  to  leave  the  State.  A  day 
of  fasting  and  prayer  was  observed.  His  decis- 
ion was  that  he  had  no  right  seriously  to  imperil 
his  friends  against  their  will,  and  he  left. 


32  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KT. 

After  some  months  he  brought  the  corpse  of 
his  little  boy  to  the  cemetery  of  the  Free  Church 
of  Christ  in  Bracken,  and  left  with  the  impres- 
sion that  he  ought  to  return  to  the  State.  He 
came  with  grave-stones  for  the  little  mound,  and 
a  mob  took  him  from  the  omnibus;  but  they 
soon  released  him,  and  he  preached  the  next 
Sabbath. 

One  of  the  prominent  trustees  of  Berea  Col- 
lege, and  for  a  short  time  a  teacher,  was 

JOHN  G.  HANSON, 

A  native  of  Bracken  County,  Kentucky.  About 
the  first  of  March,  1860,  he  returned  to  Berea 
for  the  purpose  of  sawing  some  three  hundred 
logs  left  at  his  mill,  and  of  selling  the  mill,  un- 
less he  found  the  way  open  for  his  remaining. 
The  next  Monday  being  county-court  day,  the 
Mob  Committee  convened  and  agreed  to  meet  at 
the  Glade  Meeting  House  on  Saturday,  for  the 
removal  of  Mr.  Hanson.  Only  thirty-five  met, 
and  with  a  few  speeches  and  much  whisky  they 
dispersed,  two  of  them  going  to  the  mill  and 
carrying  ofi"  an  iron  eagle,  an  ornament  on  the 
mill,  which  was  returned  to  its  place  the  next 
day.  It  was  then  thought  the  mob  spirit  had 
nearly  died  out.  But  as  events  proved  it  was 
passing  from   the  original  "  sixty-five   sensible 


JOHN  G.   HANSON.  33 

and  discreet  men  "  to  those  sunk  so  low  in  vice 
and  pollution  as  to  seem  "  condemned  already." 
Even  C.  M.  Clay  advised  Mr.  Hanson's  friends 
not  to  stand  by  him.  Monday  morning  twenty- 
five  armed  men  searched  his  boarding-place,  and 
swore  they  would  search  every  house  in  the 
neighborhood,  but  they  would  have  him  and  he 
"should  hang."  But  he  had  escaped  to  the 
woods  without  being  seen,  and  at  night  he  trav- 
eled twenty  miles  afoot  into  Jackson  County, 
where  for  a  week  he  hid  in  cliffs  and  caves  in 
the  daytime,  and  at  night  went  to  a  friend's 
house  for  food  and  lodging.  The  mob  went  from 
house  to  house,  threatening  to  shoot  people  un- 
less they  would  tell  where  Mr.  Hanson  was.  As 
they  approached  the  house  of  George  "West,  his 
daughter,  a  young  woman,  fastened  the  door, 
and  they  broke  it  down  upon  her  and  walked 
over  it  while  she  lay  under  it.  They  rushed  to 
her  father,  who  sat  in  his  bed  propped  up  with 
pillows,  being  low  with  consumption,  and,  put- 
ting their  pistols  to  his  breast,  demanded  where 
Hanson  was.  In  the  meantime  the  daughter,  a 
motherless  orphan,  had  extricated  herself  from 
the  door,  and  one  of  the  ruffians  thrust  his  pis- 
tol against  her  breast  and  pressed  her  back 
against  a  cupboard,  cursing  her  for  shutting  the 
door  against  them.    Vile  language  was  addressed 


34  BEREA   COLLEGE,   KT. 

to  a  yoimger  sister.  In  Rock  Castle  County  they 
broke  down  the  door  of  Mr.  Burdett's  house,  and, 
putting  their  pistols  to  the  breasts  of  his  wife 
and  daughters,  threatened  to  shoot  if  they  did 
not  reveal  the  hiding-place  of  Mr.  Hanson.  This 
they  repeated  again  and  again ;  but  as  he  could 
nowhere  be  found,  they  returned  to  Berea.  On 
their  way  they  met  a  company  of  Berea  men 
going  to  Mr.  West's,  having  heard  of  his  ill 
treatment.  Both  parties  cried  out:  "Don't 
shoot!"  The  mob  fired  about  thirty  shots,  by 
the  order  of  Colonel  Mundy,  and  the  Berea  men 
returned  two.  None  were  seriously  injured. 
Having  accomplished  nothing  they  returned  to 
Richmond  for  recruits.  A  cannon  was  secured 
from  Lexington,  and  the  next  day  they  returned 
to  Berea,  two  hundred  and  nineteen  strong. 
Finding  no  Berea  men  at  home  they  went  to 
Mr.  Hanson's  mill,  tore  off  the  roof,  pulled 
down  the  smoke  stack,  broke  every  wheel, 
ruined  the  boiler,  and  left  all  a  complete  wreck. 
They  unroofed  a  neighbor's  smoke  house,  tore  a 
log  from  the  wall  of  his  dwelling,  pulled  his 
chimney  down  and  shot  many  of  his  chickens. 
Then,  leaving  the  names  of  fifteen  men,  who 
they  said  must  leave  in  fifteen  days,  they  re- 
turned to  Richmond,  and,  as  an  eye-witness 
asserts,  the  circuit  court  adjourned  to  hear  their 


JOHN  G.   HANSON.  35 

report.     Such  a  state  of  society  had  slavery  pro- 
duced. 

Many  in  Jackson  County  urged  Mr.  Hanson 
to  remain  with  them,  and  pledged  their  lives, 
their  property  and  their  sacred  honor  in  defense 
of  his  rights.  But  not  willing  to  bring  on  a 
conflict  between  the  two  counties,  and  knowing 
that  his  life  was  in  constant  danger,  he  deter- 
mined to  leave  the  State.  On  the  third  of  April 
he  left  the  mountain  fastnesses,  and,  walking  all 
that  night,  he  passed  his  beloved  home  and  his 
mill  in  ruins.  The  next  day,  having  passed  the 
small  town  of  Kirksville,  he  was  pursued  by 
two  of  the  original  committee  of  "  sixty-five  sen- 
sible and  discreet  men."  They  searched  him  for 
"fighting  tools,"  as  they  said;  but  he  assured 
them  he  never  carried  any,  and  had  no  wish  to 
hurt  any  man,  and  was  then  going  out  of  the 
State.  They  told  him  they  were  in  honor  bound 
to  deliver  him  in  Richmond.  A  brother  of  one 
of  the  committee  told  him  he  must  now  go  to 
Richmond  and  "pull  rope."  And  they  started 
slowly  on,  the  committee  riding  and  he  walking 
in  front.  But  they  knew  that  to  take  him  to 
Richmond  was  to  murder  him,  and  they  began 
to  shrink  from  such  a  crime.  One  proposed  to 
let  him  go,  and  got  off  his  horse  and  requested 
him  to  ride.    Finally,  after  a  long  consultation, 


36  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KY. 

they  told  him  they  had  been  deceived  in  him, 
that  they  did  not  wisli  to  see  a  hair  of  his  head 
hurt,  that  a  reward  of  one  hundred  dollars  was 
oft'ered  for  his  delivery  in  Richmond,  but  they 
would  not  deliver  him.     They  advised  him  to 
endeavor  to  escape,  and  gave  him  directions  for 
liis  safety.     Leaving  them  he  crossed  Kentucky 
Kiver,  on  his  way  to  the  Kentucky  Central  Rail- 
road at  Nicholasville.    He  found  he  was  pursued 
and  lay  in  the  fields  all  night,  and  barely  escaped 
being  retaken.  He  desired  to  find  some  "  Charter 
Oak"  in  which  to  conceal  the  archives  of  the 
young  Institution,  which  he  bore  with  him,  being 
still  its  Secretary,  as  he  continued  to  be  fourteen 
years.     He  spent  the  most  of  the  night  and  the 
next  day  on  the  Cedar  Bluffs  of  Hickman  Creek, 
near  where  Camp  Nelson  was  afterward  located. 
The  next  night  he  passed  ISTicholasville,  at  early 
dawn  passed  between  Lexington  and  Ashland, 
and  reached  Paris  in  time  for  the  cars,  which  he 
took   to    Falmouth.      Thence   he   walked  nine 
miles,  and  slept  in  a  house  the  first  time  for  a 
week.     A  weary  walk  of  fourteen  miles  brought 
him  to  his  father's  house,  thankful  for  God's  pro- 
tection and  for  warm  and  true  hearts  to  cheer  him. 
Mr.  Hanson  closes  his  narrative,  of  which  this 
is  an  abstract,  with  the  following  expression  of 
his  feelings : 


JOHN  G.    HANSON.  37 

"  When  I  reflect  what  my  course  of  life  and 
ly  labors  have  been,  what  I  had  at  heart  and 
wished  to  do  for  my  countrymen  in  Kentucky, 
nd  think  of  what  I  have  received  at  their 
ands,  it  makes  me  weep  and  love  them  more; 
s  they  show  by  their  madness  that  '  they  know 
ot  what  they  do,'  and  are  tending  fast  to  eternal 
arrows.  In  the  course  that  I  have  followed  I 
ave  nothing  that  I  regret.  Trusting  in  God  I 
ball  still  labor  that  so  good  a  land,  tilled  with 
lany  generous  spirits,  and  many  wailing  slaves, 
ball  yet  be  free." 

Mr.  Hanson  returned  at  the  close  of  the  war, 
nd  found  that  justice,  which  had  "stood  afar 
ft',''  was  coming  nigh.  He  recovered  a  portion 
f  his  loss,  rebuilt  his  shattered  mill,  and,  with 
le  aid  of  his  brother,  erected  another,  and  also 

planing  mill.  But  not  one-fourth  the  damage 
one  him  has  been  made  good,  and  he  has  been 
instantly  embarrassed.  He  is  still  a  trustee  of 
ae  College  and  a  member  of  the  Prudential 
ioramittee. 

In  1862  Mr.  Fee  made  another  effort  to  return 
)  the  State.  He  sent  his  family  forward  to 
lerea,  but  in  attempting  to  join  them  was 
topped  by  the  battle  of  Richmond,  and  for  ten 
'^eeks  no  communication  passed  between  them. 

That  year  he  was  mobbed  in  Augusta,  where 


38  BEREA   COLLEGE,   KY. 

he  graduated.  He  was  takeu  into  the  office  of 
his  cousin,  and,  after  being  threatened  with 
death  if  he  should  ever  return,  was  put  across 
the  Ohio  River  at  midnight.  Two  skiif  loads  of 
ruffians  followed,  swearing  they  would  whip  him 
like  hell;  but  on  landing  in  the  darkness  they 
failed  to  find  him.  Four  of  the  leaders  of  this 
mob  died  sudden  and  violent  deaths. 

Five  weeks  later  he  returned  to  Bracken 
County,  and  was  mobbed  while  waiting  for  the 
stage  at  the  house  of  a  Presbyterian  minister  in 
an  adjoining  county.  He  was  committed  to  five 
men  to  be  taken  to  Augusta.  But  a  friend 
joined  the  company  and  adroitly  diverted  them 
to  Maysville,  where  he  crossed  the  river.  Being 
assured  by  friends  that  he  could  not  travel  in 
Kentucky,  he  turned  aside  to  a  village  in  Ohio, 
sent  for  his  family  and  remained  some  ten 
months,  then  returned  to  Berea,  where  his  wife, 
aided  by  his  oldest  son,  opened  a  school. 

Till  the  close  of  the  war  much  of  his  time 
was  spent  in  Camp  Nelson,  a  natural  fortress, 
with  sublime  scenery  and  a  rich  soil,  almost  en- 
circled by  the  high  and  rugged  banks  of  the 
Kentucky  River,  nineteen  miles  south  of  Lex- 
ington and  thirty-six  from  Berea.  Here  he 
aided  in  establishing  schools  for  colored  soldiers 
and  their  women  and  children,  and  here  had  a 


JOHN   G.    FEE.  39 

little  of  Ms  peculiar  experience.  Among  seven 
white  teachers  a  single  bright,  genteel  quadroon 
was  introduced,  and  five  of  the  seven  refused  to 
eat  with  her.  He  was  advised  to  remove  her, 
but  refused.  The  average  Kentuckian  would 
say:  "  The  five  did  just  right."  Bereans  would 
say:  "They  did  just  wrong."  At  Camp  Xelson 
there  is  still  a  large  colored  settlement,  the  most 
moral,  harmonious  and  hopeful  in  the  State.  The 
school  still  continues,  and  is  at  present  under  the 
superintendence  of  Howard  S.  Fee,  a  graduate 
of  Berea  College. 

This  brief  account  of  the  persecutions  and 
hardships  of  those  days  of  trial  needs  to  be 
filled  up  by  the  reader's  imagination ;  and  there 
is  little  danger  that  they  will  overdo  the  matter. 
The  thrilling  stories  of  our  sisters,  with  which, 
hour  after  hour,  they  enchain  the  wives  of  us 
who  were  not  actors  in  those  scenes,  would  form 
an  interesting  chapter  of  annoyances,  and  dan- 
gers, and  marvelous  deliverances,  of  midnight 
watchings,  and  fears,  and  prayers,  of  cheerful 
courage,  and  faith,  and  hopes  delayed,  of  the 
self-sacrificing  adherence  and  protection  of  some, 
and  the  contemptuous  scorn  and  perfidy  of  others, 
which  it  would  be  easy  to  write;  but  our  object 
is  not  a  story,  but  a  plain,  historical  account  of 
Berea  College. 


40  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KY. 

REOPENIi^G  OF  THE  SCHOOL. 

In  1865  the  school  was  reopened.     Prof.  Rog- 
ers and  family  returned,  and  W.  W.  Wheeler 
and  wife  came  from  Camp  Nelson,  as  assistants. 
A  charter  for  a  College  was  obtained  under  a 
general  law  of  the  State,  the  Board  of  Trustees 
was  reorganized,  other  land  was  purchased,  stu- 
dents came  in  to  the  number  of  seventy-five  or 
more,  and  everything  seemed  promising;  when 
a  new  question  arose,  or  rather  an  old  question 
in  a  practical  form.    Before  the  war,  when  it  was 
decided  to  "furnish  facilities  for  education  to  all 
persons  of  good  moral  character,"  three  of  the 
trustees  had  resigned ;  for  all  persons  included 
colored   persons.       And   the   discussion  of  the 
question,  whether,  if  a  colored  person  should  ask 
for  admission  to  the  school,  he  should  be  rejected, 
had  greatly  diminished   the  number  of  pupils. 
iSTow  the  question  took  a  practical  shape.    Three 
colored  youths  asked  admission.    This  raised  no 
difficult  question.    But  one  decision  was  possible 
to  such  men ;  and  that  was  already  made.    They 
were  "persons  o^  good    moral  character,"  and 
must  be  admitted.     But  it  was  manifest  that  a 
tempest  of  opposition  would  follow,  mobs  might 
rally  again,  and  the  school  might  be  broken  up. 
Though  duty  was  plain,  the  consequence  might 


REOPENING  OP  THE  SCHOOL.  41 

be  like  a  crucifixion.  The  morning  that  those 
three  harmless  youths  walked  in,  half  the  school 
walked  out.  The  whole  country  was  excited, 
and,  but  for  the  discipline  of  the  war,  and  the 
awe  produced  by  the  triumph  of  liberty  over 
slavery,  and  the  abolitionists  of  Berea  over  their 
enemies,  doubtless  another  expulsion  would  have 
been  chronicled.  Rumors  of  raids  came  from 
far,  and  rowdyism  sometimes  disgraced  itself 
very  near.  Pistols  were  discharged  by  drunken 
idiots  racing  through  the  streets,  and  occasionally 
were  fired  into  the  buildings.  But  the  opposi- 
tion generally  confined  itself  to  exhibitions  of 
disgust,  and  published  declarations  that  "  Berea 
is  a  stench  in  the  nostrils  of  all  true  Kentuck- 
ians  " — delicate  words  recently  published  by  the 
State  Superintendent  of  Public  Schools,  and  by 
our  own  county  paper.  But  this,  we  trust,  we 
shall  have  grace  to  endure,  so  long  as  we  know 
of  but  one  school  more  patronized  by  Kentuck- 
ians  than  this,  and  those,  too,  the  truest  Ken- 
tuckians  that  Kentucky  can  claim.  The  vacancy 
made  by  the  white  deserters  was  soon  filled  with 
colored  recruits,  and  eventually  nearly  all  that 
left  returned  and  became  fast  friends  of  Berea. 
At  no  time  have  the  colored  exceeded  three-fifths 
of  the  school,  and  the  present  year,  when  the 
attendance   was   largest,  there   were   two  more 


42  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KY. 

white  than  colored.  And  the  evils  which  the 
wise  ones  knew  would  result  from  this  union 
have  never  occurred.  The  most  serious  collision 
which  the  writer  remembers  to  have  occurred  be- 
tween the  races  was  where  an  uncultured  white 
girl  complained  that  a  colored  girl  called  her 
"  poor  white  trash,"  and  the  colored  girl  replied 
that  she  did  not  do  it  till  she  called  her  "  nigger." 
The  controversy  was  settled  without  great  diffi- 
culty. There  is  no  school  in  the  State  easier 
governed  than  this.  The  question  whether  the 
colored  pupils  are  not  necessarily  a  drag  upon 
the  classes  would  never  be  asked  by  one  who 
had  any  fair  criterion  by  which  to  judge.  Pu- 
pils who  have  had  the  best  school  advantages 
from  their  infancy,  ceteris  paribus^  will  surpass 
those  who  learn  their  alphabet  at  fifteen  or 
eighteen.  This  is  the  chief  source  of  inequality 
among  our  students.  The  certain  amalgamation 
which  was  to  follow  is  all  in  the  future.  What 
dangers  await  us  in  this  respect  we  know  not ; 
but  of  this  we  feel  sure,  that  any  alliances  which 
may  possibly  result  from  the  social  relations  es- 
tablished here  will  be  a  blessing  compared  with 
the  disgusting  concubinage  which  abounded  in 
the  days  of  slavery,  and  is  so  very  common  still 
that  it  excludes  no  one  from  honorable  positions 
or  genteel  society.     We  feel  sure  also  that  free- 


SOCIAL  RELATIONS.  4*3 

dom,  education  and  equality  will  tend,  not  to 
promote,  but  to  cure  all  social  evils.  All  history- 
proves  that  the  beautiful  women  in  the  lower 
walks  of  life  are  a  prey  to  lustful  men  who  look 
down  upon  them  from  a  more  elevated  position. 
Aside  from  pure  religion  we  know  of  no  so  sure 
protection  for  them  as  social  elevation,  which 
carries  with  it  self-respect  and  commands  the 
respect  of  others.  But  all  such  reasoning  aside, 
we  know  it  can  not  be  dangerous  to  love  our 
neighbors  as  ourselves,  and  do  to  others  as  we 
would  that  they  should  do  to  us.  The  influence 
which  has  kept  the  colored  population  in  a  de- 
graded condition,  and  still  seeks  to  keep  them 
there,  is  not  love  and  justice,  but  lust  and  op- 
pression. For  more  than  forty  years  some  of  us 
have  heard  this  amalgamation  alarm,  but  it  sel- 
dom came  from  those  who  "remembered  them 
that  were  in  bonds  as  bound  with  them;"  but 
Avas  always  loudest,  as  it  still  is,  from  those  who 
have  the  least  care  what  becomes  of  either  white 
or  colored  people,  so  that  their  own  selfish  lives 
are  not  interrupted. 

We  know  that  many  good  people  have  their 
honest  fears  on  this  subject,  and  we  shall  always 
be  thankful  for  their  advice  and  prayers  in  dis- 
charging our  most  difficult  and  delicate  respon- 
sibilities. 


44  BEREA   COLLEGE,   KY. 

Many  of  our  friends  desire  to  know  precisely 
what  relations  our  white  and  colored  pupils  sus- 
tain to  each  other,  and  it  is  our  desire  that  they 
should  know. 

Our  school  regulations  make  no  distinction 
whatever  on  account  of  color.  They  recite  in 
the  same  classes,  eat  at  the  same  tables,  room  in 
the  same  buildings,  attend  the  same  meetings, 
and  meet  in  all  general  social  gatherings.  It  is 
no  uncommon  thing  on  such  occasions  as  Thanks- 
giving and  Christmas  to  see  three  hundred  per- 
sons— teachers,  pupils  and  citizens — mingling  in 
the  most  perfect  social  equality,  without  the 
least  friction,  or  the  least  sense  of  impropriety. 
Do  persons  of  different  races  and  sexes  attend 
each  other  to  and  from  literary  lectures  and 
social  assemblies?  There  is  no  rule  against  it, 
and  sometimes  they  do.  If  we  saw  that  the 
parties  were  in  danger  of  exposing  themselves 
to  violence,  or  special  suspicion  of  improper 
motives,  or  were  disposed  to  make  an  offensive 
display  of  themselves,  we  should  interfere  to 
prevent  it.  If  such  parties  should  become  es- 
pecially intimate,  and  appear  to  be  contempla- 
ting a  life  union,  being,  as  teachers,  to  a  great 
extent,  in  loco  parentis^  we  should  remind  them 
of  the  contempt  and  ostracism  society  would 
visit  upon  them,  and  if  thought  necessary  com- 


SOCIAL   RELATIONS.  45 

municate  with  their  parents.  But  even  such  an 
alliance,  if  conducted  in  other  respects  with 
propriety  and  discretion,  would  not  disturb  their 
relations  to  the  school.  Their  own  judgment, 
and  the  social  influences  bearing  upon  them,  are 
their  best  and  only  necessary  protection  against 
an  imprudent  decision. 

We  are  often  asked  how  our  white  pupils  en- 
dure this  condition  of  things.  They  come  with 
a  perfect  knowledge  of  the  character  of  the 
school,  and  with  their  minds  prepared  to  endure 
it ;  and,  having  remained  a  week  or  two,  they 
find  there  is  nothing  to  endure.  The  difference 
between  a  colored  person's  sitting  at  the  table 
and  standing  by  it  is  too  slight  to  be  disturbed 
about;  and  the  difference  between  lifting  at  the 
same  log  and  working  at  the  same  problem  is 
hardly  discoverable.  They  never  did  shrink 
from  contiguity  with  colored  people  and  why 
should  they  now?  The  trouble  is  at  the  other 
end  of  the  line  and  not  here.  A  prominent  gen- 
tleman, a  democrat  and  ex-rebel,  a  preacher  and 
distinguished  educator,  living  sixty  miles  dis- 
tant, met  one  of  our  professors  at  a  Sabbath- 
school  convention,  and  the  president  at  a  teach- 
ers' institute,  a  white  student  at  another  institute, 
and  a  colored  student  as  a  teacher  in  his  county, 
and  became  convinced  that  Berea  College  was 


46  BEREA    COLLEGE,    KY. 

the  best  school  for  his  own  son.  With  a  great 
struggle,  himself,  and  wife,  and  son  overcame 
their  own  prejudices,  and  concluded  to  bear  the 
contempt  of  their  neighbors.  The  father  in- 
formed a  Democratic,  Christian  brother  that  he 
had  concluded  to  send  his  son  to  Berea,  and  he 
at  once  replied:  "You  had  better  take  him  out 
and  shoot  him!"  On  their  way  here  they 
avoided  the  houses  of  old  friends,  to  escape  un- 
pleasant talk.  Their  trouble  was  not  here. 
Many  of  their  neighbors  have  also  availed  them- 
selves of  the  same  advantages,  and  the  trouble  is 
greatly  diminished  there. 

Four  nice  young  ladies  came  one  hundred  and 
twenty  miles  to  attend  the  school,  but  said  they 
were  obliged  to  fight  their  way  here,  and  that 
we  had  no  idea  what  opposition  they  had  to 
contend  with.  One  of  them  received  a  letter 
from  a  young  friend  informing  her  that  if  she 
-came  home  at  the  close  of  the  first  term  she 
would  probably  be  received  into  society  again, 
but  she  could  never  occupy  the  place  she  for- 
merly did.  She  thanked  him  for  his  interest  in 
her  welfare,  and  assured  him  that  her  true  friends 
would  not  forsake  her,  and  told  him  that  proba- 
bly some  of  her  friends  needed  to  be  tried.  An- 
other was  told  that  she  must  not  expect  to  be 
employed  as  a  teacher  in  that  county;  but  she 


SOCIAL  RELATIONS.  47 

Boon  obtained  one  of  the  best  schools,  and  all 
feel  80  little  damaged  that  they  are  very  anxious 
to  return. 

A  lady  came  here  to  reside  for  the  sake  of 
educating  her  son,  but  not  till  her  friends  had 
secured  a  promise  that  the  daughter  should 
never  attend  the  school.  What  compromise  has 
been  made  I  am  not  aware,  but  the  daughter  is 
DOW  attending  and  enjoys  it  very  much.  It  is  a 
moral  discipline  for  a  white  Kentuckian  to  at- 
tend Berea  College,  which  is  often  more  valuable 
than  the  knowledge  obtained. 

"We  are  often  advised  by  our  Kentucky  visi- 
tors that  a  single  change  would  add  greatly  ta 
the  usefulness  and  prosperity  of  our  school.  If 
we  would  just  separate  the  blacks  by  them- 
selves, and  instruct  them  as  we  do  now,  only  in 
separate  buildings,  we  would  be  crowded  with 
students,  and  money  would  flow  in  upon  us 
abundantl3^  It  seems  as  if  we  were  standing  in 
our  own  light.  We  reply  that  this  would  double 
the  expenses  of  the  school,  and  the  two  depart- 
ments might  as  well  be  in  different  towns ;  also 
it  would  defeat  one  of  the  chief  objects  of  the 
school,  to  eradicate  prejudice  and  caste;  also 
we  ask,  what  other  school  in  the  State  has  been 
enabled  by  its  friends  to  furnish  as  good  build- 
ings and  as  good  an  education  as  we,  at  as  low 


48  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KT. 

a  rate  ?  Also  we  inform  them  that  money  enough 
could  not  be  offered  to  induce  us  to  make  such 
a  change. 

On  the  general  question  of  admitting  persons 
of  good  moral  character,  without  regard  to  race 
or  color,  the  school  has  maintained  a  uniform 
position;  but  as  to  the  application  of  the  general 
principle,  in  particular  cases,  difficult  questions 
have  arisen,  and  considerable  diversity  of  views 
has  existed.  It  is  not  without  much  discussion, 
and  serious  misgivings  on  the  part  of  some,  that 
we  have  reached  all  the  practical  principles  here 
explained  in  detail.  So  far  as  appears  there  is 
perfect  harmony  among  us  at  present,  and  for 
two  years  or  more  there  has  been  no  discussion 
on  these  subjects. 

TEMPORARY  BUILDINGS. 

A  large  influx  of  students  in  1866-7  necessi- 
tated the  furnishing  of  room.  Two  buildings, 
suitable  for  stores,  were  erected.  One  was  used 
for  a  boarding  hall,  the  upper  story  and  the  attic 
being  divided  into  rooms  for  young  ladies  and 
lady  teachers,  and  the  other  for  a  store  and 
dwelling. 

Two  nice  but  cheap  little  cottages  were 
erected  for  dormitories  for  young  men,  and 
three  box    houses,   about   fifteen  by  thirty,  of 


50  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KY. 

rough  plank,  with  outside  stairways  to  the  attics 
for  the  same  purpose.  Another  building  of  sim- 
ilar construction,  thirty-two  by  sixty-four,  was 
divided  into  three  school-rooms,  a  hall  and  a 
3hapel.  The  whole  building  is  used  as  a  chapel 
now.  It  is  whitewashed  and  tolerably  comforta- 
ble in  the  summer,  but  cold  in  the  winter. 

These  buildings,  from  top  to  bottom,  w^ere  filled 
with  students,  some  occupying  attics  where  they 
could  hardly  stand  erect,  when  President  E.  H. 
Fairchild  came,  in  the  spring  of  1869.  He  was 
called  at  the  meeting  of  the  trustees  in  July,  1868. 

PRESIDENT  FAIRCHILD. 

He  is  a  native  of  Stockbridge,  Massachusetts, 
but  was  reared  in  jSTorthern  Ohio.  He  and  his 
brother  James,  now  President  of  Oberlin  Col- 
lege, constituted  the  first  Freshman  Class  of  that 
institution.  Their  father  w^as  a  farmer  of  mod- 
erate means,  yet  was  able,  with  great  economy, 
and  the  hearty  co-operation  of  all  the  family,  to 
send  three  sons  and  two  daughters  through  the 
entire  college  course  at  Oberlin;  and  another 
daughter  through  the  ladies'  course;  and  the 
sons  through  the  theological  department.  Ed- 
ward Henry,  the  President  of  Berea  College,  at 
the  early  age  of  sixteen,  while  a  student  at  the 
Elyria  High   School,  under  the  supervision  of 


62  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KY. 

John  Monteith,  became  greatly  interested  in  the 
antislavery  movement,  which  was  beginning  to 
stir  the  hearts  of  a  few  in  many  parts  of  the 
country.  At  the  close  of  six  months'  discussion 
of  the  subject  in  the  school,  he,  with  a  school- 
mate, prepared  a  colloquy  for  the  public  exhibi- 
tion held  in  the  Court  House,  in  which  they 
represented  a  slave  trader,  a  planter,  a  driver,  a 
slave  pen  in  hearing,  but  not  in  sight,  its  keeper, 
an  abolitionist,  a  slave  sold,  whipped  and  liber- 
ated, with  hot  blood  and  high  words,  and  a  show 
of  weapons.  The  whole  county  was  excited  by 
it.  At  Oberlin  he  participated  in  the  long  and 
earnest  discussion  of  the  question  of  admitting 
colored  students.  He  was  present  when  the  pro- 
testing students  from  Lane,  with  President  Ma- 
han  and  Prof.  Morgan,  were  welcomed,  and 
listened  to  the  twenty-one  lectures  of  Theodore 
Weld,  delivered  soon  after.  At  twenty-one, 
when  good  material  was  not  abundant,  he  was 
commissioned  as  an  antislavery  lecturer  by  the 
American  Antislavery  Society,  and  sent  three 
months  to  Northern  Pennsylvania.  At  twenty- 
two  he  was  engaged  for  four  months,  as  teacher 
of  a  large  colored  school  at  the  foot  of  Western 
Row  in  Cincinnati,  receiving  his  expenses  for 
his  salary.  At  twenty-three  he  was  employed 
three  months  by  the  Ohio  Antislavery  Society. 


PRESIDENT   PAIRCHILD.  53 

In  these  various  labors  for  the  oppressed  he  re- 
ceived his  share  of  attention  from  mobs,  and 
cold  shoulder  from  preachers ;  and  once,  at 
Columbus  in  Pennsylvania,  after  speaking  an 
hour  amid  a  din  of  horns,  tin  pans,  swearing, 
screeching,  singing,and  flying  missiles,was  driven 
from  the  house  by  burning  brimstone.  At  twen- 
ty-six, having  finished  his  theological  studies, 
and  taken  for  his  companion  the  maid  whom  his 
heart  selected  when  he  was  fifteen,  he  was  called 
to  preach  to  the  First  Congregational  Church  of 
Cleveland.  Having  continued  in  the  ministry 
twelve  years,  in  various  places,  he  was  appointed 
Principal  of  the  Preparatory  Department  of  Ober- 
lin  College,  and  held  that  position  sixteen  years, 
having  supervision  of  five  hundred  young  men 
and  over  forty  teachers  each  year.  The  last  two 
years  he  acted  as  financial  agent  of  the  college 
and  raised  eighty  thousand  dollars.  This  work 
called  the  attention  of  incipient  institutions  to 
him,  and,  while  desired  at  Oberlin,  he  received 
three  appointments,  almost  simultaneously,  from 
three  colleges,  remote  from  each  other,  all  of 
them  desirable,  and  a  visit  from  a  fourth.  He 
accepted  the  call  to  Berea,  after  a  visit  to  the 
place,  and  entered  upon  the  work  in  April,  1869. 
This  year  Howard  Hall  was  erected  by  the 
Freedmen's  Bureau,  at  a  cost  of  eighteen  thou- 


54  BEREA    COLLEGE,    KY. 

sand  dollars.  It  is  a  very  fine  three-story  wood 
building,  forty  by  eighty,  with  a  tin  roof,  and 
presents  a  much  better  appearance  than  its  pic- 
ture. 

It  is  a  dormitory  for  young  men,  and  embraces 
a  reading  room  and  two  nice  society  rooms. 

LADIES'  HALL. 
In   1870-71   our   accommodations   for  young 
ladies  were  found  much  too  strait  for  them.   Nine 
were  sent  into   the  attic,  which  was  one  large 
room,  with  a  window  in  each  end.     There  was 
no  room  for  further  development,  and  such  ac- 
commodations as  we  had  were  of  a  very  inferior 
style.     The  dining  room  was  also  used  for  com- 
mon sitting  room  and  parlor.     A  new  building 
was  a  necessity ;  but  whether  to  erect  a  tempo- 
rary or  a  permanent  edifice  was  an  important 
question.     After  consulting  friends  on  whom  we 
must  largely  depend  for  the  means,  it  was  de- 
termined to  erect  such  a  building  as  would  meet 
our  wants  for  many  years,  not  with  the  expecta- 
tion of  tilling  it  immediately,  but,  as  we  hoped, 
in  a  few  years.   The  Ladies'  Hall  at  Oberlin  was 
taken  as  a  pattern,  and  its  excellencies  were,  if 
possible,  improved,  and  its  defects  remedied.  ^  It 
is  one  of  the  most  perfect  buildings  of  its  kind 
to  be  found  in  the  country.    It  is  of  brick,  three 


llliiiS^;ti'f;i;liir,^;;l''':''i!''"!^^^ 


56  BEREA   COLLEGE,   KY. 

stories  high,  above  a  superior  basement,  having 
two  fronts  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  feet  each, 
and  a  roof  of  slate  and  tin.  The  "first  story  em- 
braces a  reception  room,  ofiice,  parlor,  assembly 
room,  society  room,  reading  room,  dressing  room, 
a  large  dining  room,  an  upper  kitchen  with  a 
china  closet  and  variety  room,  and  the  steward's 
rooms.  The  basement,  which  on  one  side  is  en- 
tirely above  ground,  embraces,  besides  furnaces 
and  wood  rooms  and  cellar  rooms,  a  superb 
kitchen,  with  a  meal  room  and  the  cook's  living 
room  adjoining,  and  dumb  waiters,  a  porter's 
room  contiguous  to  the  elevator  and  the  fur- 
naces, a  wash  room  and  ironing  room,  and  a 
railroad  for  carrying  trunks  to  the  elevator  and 
wood  to  every  place  where  it  is  needed.  The 
two  upper  stories  furnish  rooms  for  ninety  ladies, 
with  water  tanks,  water  closets  and  bath  rooms 
on  both  floors.  The  first  story  and  the  corridors 
are  heated  by  three  superior  furnaces,  and  the 
rooms  in  the  two  upper  stories  with  stoves. 
Every  room  has  a  ventilator  and  a  transom,  and 
every  lady's  room  a  closet.  The  whole  is  fin- 
ished with  butternut  and  chestnut,  and  varnished. 
The  garret  is  one  large  room,  with  a  smooth, 
nice  floor  over  the  whole,  an  excellent  place  for 
exercise  or  for  drying  clothes  in  stormy  weather. 
A  door  from  the  wash  room  opens  to  the  eleva- 


PRESIDENT    FAIRCHILD.  57 

tor.  Besides  the  tanks  in  the  building,  there  are 
three  large  cisterns  and  a  large  well  outside. 
There  is  also  a  forcing  pump  to  send  water  from 
the  well,  which  never  fails,  to  the  tanks  above. 
This  building  is  surrounded  with  six  acres  of 
ground,  embracing  a  large  grove  of  forest  trees 
at  one  side,  coming  up  to  the  street,  in  which, 
by  permission,  young  gentlemen  may  meet  the 
ladies  for  croquet.  In  the  rear  of  this  grove  is 
a  vineyard,  and  in  the  rear  of  the  vineyard  a 
garden.  There  is  also  a  fine  grove  in  the  rear, 
for  ladies  alone.  The  front  yard  is  graded  and 
covered  with  grass,  dotted  with  evergreens,  and 
furnished  with  permanent  walks  of  slate  and 
gravel.  On  the  two  fronts  is  a  beautiful  and 
substantial  picket  fence.  The  cost  of  the  whole, 
including  the  ground  and  a  substantial  barn, 
was  fifty-six  thousand  dollars. 

All  other  College  buildings,  including  Howard 
Hall,  Recitation  Hall,  which  is  a  transformation 
of  the  second  boarding  hall.  Office  Building, 
Grammar  School,  a  very  good  building,  Inter- 
mediate School,  very  poor,  and  the  Chapel,  are 
situated  in  the  College  Campus,  consisting  of 
two  large  and  beautiful  groves  of  forest  trees, 
embracing  about  twenty-five  acres.  The  larger 
grove,  in  which  the  buildings  are,  is  on  the  high 
land,  and  the  other  in  the  plain,  fifty  feet  below. 


58  BEREA   OOLLBOB,    KT. 

FINANCE. 
Besides  the  buildings,  which  are  estimated  at 
seventy-five  thousand  dollars,  the  College  owns 
three  hundred  and  fifty  acres  of  land,  not  in- 
cluding the  grounds  about  the  buildings,  worth 
about  fifteen  thousand  dollars.  Much  of  this 
land  lies  on  the  best  streets  of  the  village,  and  is 
laid  out  into  lots,  averaging  about  one  hundred 
feet  by  three  hundred,  which  are  held  at  one 
hundred  dollars  a  lot.  It  owns  also  about 
twenty-five  good  business  lots,  twenty-five  feet 
by  one  hundred  and  twenty-five,  held  at 
one  hundred  dollars  to  one  hundred  and  fifty 
dollars  a  lot.  The  College  has  the  begin- 
ning of  an  endowment,  thirty-four  thousand 
dollars,  which  has  been  secured  with  little  effort. 
The  effort  in  this  direction  has  just  commenced. 
A  portion  of  this  endowment  has  been  borrowed 
by  the  College,  with  the  consent  of  the  donors, 
and  secured  by  a  lien  upon  its  land.  On  another 
portion  interest  is  paid  to  the  donor,  an  aged 
man,  during  his  lifetime.  Only  nineteen  thou- 
sand dollars  bring  an  income  to  the  College. 
Our  debts  to  individuals  and  banks  are  about 
twelve  thousand  dollars.  We  know  of  subscrip- 
tions and  bequests  suf&cient  to  pay  them,  but 
they  are  not  available  for  that  purpose  at  pres- 
ent.    Our  current  expenses  are  about  ten  thou- 


DEPARTMENTS  OP  THE  COLLEOB.        69 

sand  dollars,  and  our  income  four  thousand  dol- 
lars. The  balance  is  made  up  by  benevolent 
contributions.  Many  of  our  students  are  ad- 
mitted free  of  tuition,  on  account  of  funds  con- 
tributed for  that  object;  hence  our  income  from 
that  source  is  very  small ;  tuition  is  only  nominal, 
being  but  seven  dollars  and  a  half  to  ten  dollars 
and  a  half  a  year.  It  will  probably  be  entirely 
relinquished  when  a  sufficient  endowment  is  se- 
cured. 

DEPARTMENTS  OF  THE  COLLEGE. 

The  constituency  of  the  College  is  such  as  to 
compel  the  keeping  up  of  all  grades  of  schools 
from  the  primary  to  the  college  proper.  It  is 
especially  a  school  for  the  poor,  and  for  those 
who  have  had  little  or  no  opportunity  for  educa- 
tion. It  keeps  up  primary,  intermediate  and 
grammar  schools;  and  divides  the  superior  por- 
tion of  the  school  into  college,  literary,  normal 
and  preparatory  departments,  with  about  the 
usual  courses  of  study  in  the  several  depart- 
ments. A  year  each,  of  French  and  German,  is 
required  in  the  College  course.  The  literary 
course  is  the  same  as  is  usually  styled  the  ladies' 
course.  It  is  designed  not  only  for  ladies,  but 
for  gentlemen,  who  desire  a  thorough  English 
education   without   Greek,  and   with   only  the 


60  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KT. 

amount  of  Latin  required  for  entering  college. 
The  normal  course  is  what  its  name  implies. 
No  department  of  the  Institution  is  of  greater 
importance  than  this.  Kentucky  has  no  greater 
need  than  a  large  reinforcement  of  competent, 
native  school  teachers,  both  white  and  colored. 
There  is  no  great  demand  for  foreign  teachers. 
The  native  born  will  generally  be  preferred,  and 
they  are  sufficiently  numerous  to  meet  all  de- 
mands. They  simpl}^  need  better  qualifications; 
and,  from  the  number  of  actual  teachers  who 
have  recently  come  to  this  school,  we  judge  the 
prospect  for  improvement  is  encouraging. 

GRADUATES. 

The  first  College  Class  entered  in  1869,  and 
graduated  in  1873.  It  consisted  of  three  white 
young  men,  all  natives  of  Kentucky.  One  of 
them  died  within  a  year,  one  is  teaching  a  high 
school  in  Illinois,  and  the  other  is  a  theological 
student,  now  traveling  for  his  health,  with  a 
good  prospect  of  recovery.  The  next  year  there 
were  four  graduates,  two  white  and  two  colored, 
three  of  them  Kentuckians  by  birth.  One  of 
them  is  principal  of  a  large  colored  school  and 
assistant  editor  of  the  American  Citizen,  one  is 
principal  of  the  colored  high  school  at  Camp 
Kelson,  one  has  been  teaching  a  country  school, 


PROFESSORS  AND  TEACHERS.  61 

and  the  other  is  tutor  in  Doane  College,  Nebraska. 
There  were  three  graduates  in  1875,  one  of  them 
colored.  But  one,  a  white  lady,  has  finished  the 
literary  course,  and  one  lady  the  normal  course. 
Graduates  are  few  in  Kentucky,  and  will  con- 
tinue to  be  till  common  school  education  is  ad- 
vanced far  beyond  its  present  condition.  In 
communities  where  one-fourth  of  the  adult  pop- 
ulation can  not  read,  and  another  fourth  can 
read  but  poorly,  few  can  be  found  who  will  see 
the  propriety  of  spending  six  years  in  school, 
after  having  acquired  a  better  education  than  a 
majority  of  their  teachers  have. 

PROFESSORS  AND  TEACHERS. 

The  President  is  Professor  of  Mental  and 
Moral  Philosophy  and  Financial  Secretary. 

Rev.  J.  A.  R.  Rogers,  Professor  of  Greek  and 
Associate  Pastor. 

Prof.  Geo.  McMillan,  a  native  of  Ireland,  a 
graduate  of  Oberlin  College  and  for  fifteen  years 
Professor  of  Latin  in  Hillsdale  College,  Michi- 
gan, has  the  chair  of  Latin. 

Mr.  L,  Y.  Dodge,  of  Ohio,  a  graduate  of  Hills- 
dale College,  Principal  of  the  Normal  School  at 
Geneva,  Ohio,  after  teaching  six  months  at  Berea, 
was  chosen  Professor  of  Mathematics.     He  will 


62  BEREA    COLLEGE,    KY. 

enter  upon  his  work  in  September.  He  was 
offered  a  professorship  at  Hillsdale. 

Rev.  C.  G.  Fairchild,  son  of  the  President,  two 
years  connected  with  the  State  Kormal  School 
at  Trenton,  New  Jersey,  and  two  years  financial 
agent  of  Berea  College,  is  appointed  Professor  of 
Natural  History,  with  the  understanding  that  he 
is  to  teach  one  term  in  the  year  and  devote  the 
rest  of  his  time  to  the  finances  of  the  College. 
He  is  at  present  in  England,  and  there  has  been 
no  time  to  hear  of  his  acceptance. 

Rev.  J.  G.  Fee,  who  is  pastor  of  the  church, 
is  also  Lecturer  on  Evidences  of  Christianity 
and  Biblical  Literature. 

Mr.  H.  R.  Chittenden,  of  Michigan,  a  gradu- 
ate of  Oberlin  College,  is  Principal  of  the  Pre- 
paratory Department. 

The  salary  of  a  Professor  is  twelve  hundred 
dollars,  the  President's  fifteen  hundred. 

Of  the  ladies  employed  at  present  Miss  Sara 
Ferguson,  of  Pennsylvania,  a  graduate  of  the 
Ladies'  Department  of  Oberlin  College,  is  Acting 
Principal  of  the  Ladies'  Department. 

Miss  Kate  Gilbert,  of  Massachusetts,  a  teacher 
of  much  experience,  both  in  her  native  State 
and  among  the  Freedmen,  is  teacher  of  Higher 
English  Branches. 

Mies  Alice  Warren,  of  Vermont,  graduate  of 


PROFESSORS   AND   TEACHERS.  63 

a  female  seminary  in  that  State,  and  for  two 
years  teacher  in  the  high  school  at  Moline,  Illi- 
nois, has  charge  of  the  Grammar  School. 

Miss  Elizabeth  Gregg,  of  Kentucky,  a  gradu- 
ate of  the  Ladies"  Department  of  Oberlin  College, 
has  the  Intermediate  School. 

Miss  Alice  E.  Peck,  of  'New  York,  an  Oberlin 
student,  and  an  experienced  teacher,  has  charge 
of  the  Primary  School. 

The  salaries  of  these  teachers  are  from  two 
hundred  and  seventy-live  dollars  to  three  hun- 
dred and  fifty  dollars,  with  their  board. 

We  have  also  teachers  of  m.usic,  vocal  and 
instrumental;  also  of  penmanship  and  book- 
keeping ;  but  commonly  they  have  been  students, 
or  otherwise  employed,  and  are  not  mentioned. 

For  the  number  of  students,  which  has  varied 
from  two  hundred  and  fifty  to  three  hundred  a 
year,  this  teaching  force  seems  large.  Twice  as 
many  pupils  would  require  no  more  teachers. 
But  for  the  number  of  classes,  and  branches  of 
study  taught,  it  is  not  large.  All  are  fully 
occupied. 

These  minute  details  can  hardly  be  interesting 
to  the  general  reader,  but  to  our  donors,  for 
whom  this  book  is  especially  designed,  they  are 
due,  whether  interesting  or  not. 


64  BEREA    COLLEGE,    KY. 

BOARD  OF  TRUSTEES. 

Rev.  Jolm  G.  Fee,  President  of  the  Board. 

Rev.  E.  H.  Fairchild,  Vice-President. 

Rev.  J.  A.  R.  Rogers,  Secretary. 

John  G.  Hanson. 

Morgan  Burdett,  farmer  of  Berea. 

Elisha  Harrison,  farmer  of  Berea. 

Rev.  Gabriel  Burdett,  pastor  at  Camp  Nelson. 

W.  W.  Wheeler,  Indian  Superintendent,  Wis- 
consin. 

Arthur  J.  Hanson,  merchant  of  Berea. 

S.  J.  Marshall,  physician,  removed  to  Ohio. 

Rev.  E.  M.  Cravath,  Secretary  American  Mis- 
sionary Association. 

Rev.  Geo.  Candee,  preacher,  Peru,  Massachusetts. 

Wm.  Hart,  Treasurer  and  Steward,  Berea. 

THE  FOLLOWING  WERE  RECENTLY  ELECTED 

Rev.  J.  H.  Heywood,  Louisville. 

Rev.  J.  E.  Roy,  Secretary  Home  Mission  Society, 

Chicago. 
Peter  H.  Clark,  Superintendent  Colored  Schools, 

Cincinnati 

Ten  of  these,  it  will  be  seen,  are  residents  of 
Kentucky,  and  three  have  removed  from  Ken- 
tucky since  their  election. 


FORMER  TEACHERS  AND  OFFICERS.       65 

FOEMER  TEACHERS  AND  OFFICERS. 

At  this  point  we  have  concluded,  though  not 
without  hesitation,  to  give  a  briefly  descriptive 
list  of  all  the  teachers  and  other  oflicers,  not 
already  mentioned,  who  have  had  part  in  this 
work.  I  do  this  for  the  gratification  of  those 
who  have  known  them  personally  and  by  repu- 
tation here,  at  the  risk  of  being  a  little  tedious 
to  those  who  care  more  for  the  facts  bearing  on 
the  present  and  prospective  influence  of  Berea 
College.  I  commence  with  the  ladies  and  follow 
very  nearly  the  order  of  their  services. 

Jennie  Donaldson,  teacher,  of  the  family  of 
Donaldsons,  near  Cincinnati.  They  are  a  wealthy 
family  from  England,  and  were  abolitionists,  and 
special  friends  of  the  Lane  Seminary  dissidents, 
in  1834.     She  is  still  living  in  Southern  Ohio. 

Mrs. Blaisdell,  a  relative  of  Miss  Donald- 
son, from  Yellow  Springs,  Ohio,  was  employed 
as  matron. 

Louisa  Kaiser,  teacher,  of  Gnadenhutten,  Ohio, 
graduate  of  the  Ladies'  Department  of  Oberlin 
College,  now  wife  of  Dr.  S.  F.  Marshall,  of 
Southern  Ohio. 

Eliza  M.  Snedaker,  teacher,  still  living  at  her 
home  in  Adams  County,  Ohio. 

Hattie  Pratt,  teacher,  graduate  of  the  Ladies' 


66  BEREA    COLLEGE,    KT. 

Department  of  Oberlin  College,  now  wife  of  Rev. 
C.  C.  Starbuck,  of  Nebraska. 

E.  Ada  Clegborn,  teacher,  graduate  of  the 
Ladies'  Department  of  Oberlin  College,  now 
missionary  in  China. 

Charlotte  M.  Blake,  matron,  from  Wisconsin, 
now  in  Peoria,  Illinois. 

Mrs.  Duncan,  Acting  Principal  Ladies'  De- 
partment, formerly  a  teacher  and  city  missionary 
of  Louisville,  Kentucky. 

Mrs.  Frances  E.  Woodrow,  Acting  Principal 
Ladies'  Department,  formerly  from  Trumbull 
County,  Ohio,  a  graduate  of  the  Ladies'  Depart- 
ment of  Oberlin  College,  then  a  teacher  in  San- 
duBky  High  School,  then  teacher  and  Principal 
Ladies'  Department  of  Ripon  College,  Wiscon- 
sin, now  wife  of  J.  K.  Newton,  teacher  of  Mod- 
ern Languages  in  Oberlin  College. 

Mrs.  S.  W.  Hart,  matron,  a  native  of  New 
York  City,  wife  of  the  present  Treasurer.  They 
were  old-time  abolitionists  of  Woodstock,  Illi- 
nois. He  was  born  in  Vermont,  but  spent  most 
of  his  life  in  Illinois.  During  the  war,  at  his 
own  request,  he  was  commissioned  by  President 
Lincoln  to  aid  in  organizing  colored  regiments. 
While  connected  with  the  Quarter  Master's  De- 
partment at  Camp  Nelson  he  became  acquainted 


FORMER   OFFICERS   AND   TEACHERS.  67 

with  Mr.  Fee.     She  died  among  her  friends,  at 
Jamestown,  New  York,  in  1872. 

Rhoda  J.  Lyon,  teacher  and  Acting  Principal 
Ladies'  Department,  formerly  a  student  at  Ober- 
lin,  then  a  teacher  in  Ohio,  then  among  the 
Freedmen  in  Georgia  and  Alabama,  now  wife  of 
Geo.  L.  Pigg,  A.  B.,  of  Berea,  teacher  in  Illinois. 

Elizabeth  Hulsart,  teacher,  from  Romeo,  Mich- 
igan, a  teacher  among  the  Freedmen,  both  be- 
fore and  since  her  two  years'  service  here. 

Saphronia  Hall,  teacher,  from  Dover,  Ohio, 
daughter  of  a  missionary  among  the  Freedmen 
in  Jamaica,  and  student  in  Oberlin  College. 

Eliza  Burdett,  teacher,  a  native  of  Kentucky, 
graduate  of  the  Normal  Department  of  Berea 
College,  now  teacher  of  the  public  school  in 
Berea. 

Mrs.  J.  H.  Clark,  Principal  Ladies'  Depart- 
ment, from  Painesville,  Ohio,  formerly  from 
Massachusetts,  sister  of  Rev.  Dr.  Chamberlin,  of 
Chicago,  and  Governor  Chamberlin,  of  South 
Carolina,  an  experienced  teacher.  She  retained 
the  office  two  years  and  resigned  in  1874. 

Charlotte  White,  Assistant  Principal,  a  niece 
of  Mrs.  Clark,  from  Massachusetts,  a  student  at 
Mt.  Holyoke  Seminary.  She  retained  her  office 
a  year,  then  remained  a  year  as  a  pupil.  She  is 
now  a  teacher  in  Massachusetts. 


68  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KY. 

J.  L.  Barber,  of  Woodstock,  Illinois,  Steward 
and  Mechanic.  He  had  formerly  kept  the 
Boarding  Hall  at  Lane  Seminary,  and  had  had 
considerable  experience  as  Superintendent  of 
Sunday-schools. 

Henry  F.  Clark,  graduate  of  Oberlin  College, 
of  Paiuesville,  Ohio,  became  Professor  of  Latin 
in  1868.  He  was  after  three  years  excused  a 
year  to  complete  his  theological  studies,  and 
after  another  year  resigned.  He  was  very  active 
while  here  in  the  general  Sunday-school  work. 
He  is  now  a  professor  in  Oberlin  College,  where 
his  abilities  as  a  teacher  became  known,  while 
away  from  Berea  College  on  leave  of  absence. 

J.  H.  Clark,  husband  of  the  Lady  Principal, 
and  father  of  the  Professor,  superintended  the 
building  of  the  Ladies'  Hall,  and  for  a  short 
time  was  Acting  Treasurer. 

C.  A.  Richardson,  teacher  of  English,  from 
East  Cleveland,  a  graduate  of  Oberlin  College, 
now  a  Congregational  preacher. 

A.  A.  Wright,  a  graduate  of  Oberlin  College, 
for  several  years  a  teacher  at  Cleveland  Heights, 
was  elected  Instructor  in  Mathematics  and  Nat- 
ural Sciences,  then  Professor  of  Chemistry  and 
Natural  Science.  He  was  excused  a  year  to 
qualify  himself  more  perfectly  for  his  professor- 
ship, and  received  an  effectual  call  from  Oberlin. 


FORMER   OFFICERS   AND   TEACHERS.  69 

Rev.  C.  C.  Starbuck,  a  graduate  of  Oberliu 
College,  and  for  many  years  a  missionary  among 
the  Freedmen  of  Jamaica,  was  employed  one 
year  as  Instructor  in  Latin  and  History, 

Joel  F.  Vaile,  of  Kokomo,  Indiana,  a  gradu- 
ate of  Oberlin  College,  was  one  year  Acting 
Professor  of  Mathematics  and  Natural  Science, 
and  was  desired  for  a  permanent  professor,  but 
previous  engagements  forbade.  He  is  now  prac- 
ticing law  in  Indiana. 

Rev.  A.  B.  Pratt,  Treasurer  and  Trustee,  for- 
merly a  Congregational  preacher  in  Michigan, 
now  in  ITebraska. 

Wm.  N".  Embree,  brother  of  Mrs.  Rogers,  and 
son-in-law  of  Mr.  Fee,  a  merchant  in  Berea,  was 
a  Trustee,  and,  for  a  time.  Assistant  Treasurer. 
He  is  now  in  business  in  Kansas. 

We  are  glad  to  give  all  these  names  a  place  in 
our  little  book.  We  shall  always  count  them 
among  our  true  friends,  and  gratefully  cherish 
their  memory. 

The  fact  that  so  large  a  proportion  of  these 
teachers  were  from  Oberlin  is  no  indication  that 
Oberlin  has  had  any  responsibility  in  the  found- 
ing and  furnishing  of  Berea,  but  only  that  Ober- 
lin gives  practical  lessons  in  human  brotherhood, 
one  of  the  chief  studies  in  every  course  in  this 
Institution ;  and  a  current  having  been  formed 


70  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KT. 

from  that   school  to  this,  it  was  easy  for  it  to 
widen  and  deepen. 

ITS  CHRISTIAi^  CHARACTER. 

The  inquiry  is  often  made :  "  To  what  religious 
denomination  does  Berea  College  belong?"  It 
belongs  to  every  Church  which  has  living  faith 
in  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  as  the  Savior  from  sin, 
and  is  seeking  to  save  the  lost  through  him. 
Whatever  their  peculiar  views  and  practices 
may  be,  if  this  is  their  faith  and  work,  we  are 
heartily  with  them.  They  can  not  be  so  far 
astray  in  anything  that  we  need  to  have  a  con- 
troversy with  them.  We  will  counsel  them  as 
brethren  if  we  think  they  err,  but  we  will  not 
exclude  them  from  our  fellowship,  nor  be  ex- 
cluded by  them  if  we  can  avoid  it. 

Our  church  is  called:  "The  Church  at  Berea," 
which  is  the  common  style  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. It  holds  all  the  doctrines  on  which  the 
great  mass  of  the  Protestant  churches  unite,  and 
tolerates  every  phase  of  opinion  and  practice  not 
inconsistent  with  true  Christian  character.  In 
its  government  all  members  of  the  church  have 
a  vote. 

Its  pastor.  Rev.  J.  Q.  Fee,  was  originally  a 
Presbyterian.  In  1852  he  embraced  the  doctrine 
of  immersion  and   still  adheres  to  it;   but  he 


ITS   CHRISTIAN   CHARACTER.  71 

earnestly  insists  that  every  true  Christian  is  en- 
titled to  a  place  in  the  church,  whatever  his 
views  may  be  as  to  the  mode  and  subjects  of  bap- 
tism. While  he  conscientiously  administers 
only  immersion,  he  as  conscientiously  yields  to 
his  brethren  in  the  church  the  privilege  of  other 
modes  and  of  infant  baptism. 

Anti-sectarianism  is  and  always  has  been  a 
fundamental  principle  of  Berea  College  and 
church.  In  the  days  of  slavery  the  church  re- 
fused to  fellowship  slaveholders  and  slaveholding 
churches,  because  it  believed  they  were  destitute 
of  Christian  character. 

It  is  to  advance  pure  and  undeliled  religion 
that  Berea  College  exists.  It  belongs  wholly  to 
Christ,  and  seeks  to  educate  all  its  pupils  for  his 
service.  It  has  no  interest  in  promoting  educa- 
tion to  be  enlisted  against  Christianity.  We 
have  occasion  often  to  mourn  our  want  of  success, 
but  we  regard  it  as  our  first  and  chief  duty  to 
lead  our  pupils  to  the  Savior  of  sinners.  We 
have  occasion  also  to  rejoice  that  our  labors  in 
this  respect  are  not  in  vain.  A  large  majority  of 
our  adult  pupils,  we  hope,  are  Christians ;  and  all 
but  one  of  our  graduates  are  professors  of  relig- 
ion. He  several  times  covenanted  to  be  the 
Lord's,  but  never  seemed  established.  He  has 
gone  to  his  account. 


72  BEREA   COLLEGE,   KY. 

POLITICS. 

Berea  College  not  only  has  a  religious,  it  has 
a  political  character.  It  is  political  because  it  is 
religious.  The  Christianity  it  teaches  does  not 
permit  men  to  ignore  their  obligations  to  main- 
tain, so  far  as  they  have  the  power,  a  righteous 
government.  We  pray  for  guidance  and  suc- 
cess in  politics  the  same  as  in  education  and 
religion.  Our  political  principle  is :  "  Thou  shalt 
love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  "We  are  not  parti- 
sans. We  would  not  be  blind  to  the  faults,  nor 
submit  to  the  dictation  of  any  party.  We  be- 
lieve in  equal  civil  rights  to  all  citizens ;  and  we 
stand  ready  to  co-operate  with  that  party  through 
which  we  can  most  effectually  promote  that 
principle.  Which  that  party  has  been  since  the 
opening  of  the  war  we  have  had  no  difficulty  in 
deciding. 

MISSION  OF  BEREA  COLLEGE. 

The  work  of  all  Christian  colleges  is  in  gen- 
eral the  same — to  promote  education,  religion 
and  general  civilization;  to  do  this  by  furnishing 
Christian  teachers,  preachers  and  cultured  busi- 
ness men  to  instruct  and  lead  the  people.  Any 
such  college,  well  sustained,  is  an  incalculable 
blessing  to  any  community. 

But  some  colleges  have  a  peculiar  responsibil- 


THE   COLORED   PEOPLE.  73 

ity.  In  tlie  providence  of  God,  or  by  some 
special  teaching  of  his  Spirit,  some  great  doc- 
trine, or  principle,  or  reform,  seems  especially 
intrusted  to  their  keeping  and  promotion.  If 
this  is  not,  in  some  measure,  true  of  Berea  Col- 
lege, we  are  utterly  in  the  dark  as  to  wants  of 
the  country. 

This  College  sustains  peculiar  relation  to  two 
classes  of  people,  who  constitute  two-thirds  of 
the  population  of  the  State — the  colored  people 
and  the  mountain  people. 

THE  COLORED  PEOPLE 

Believe  that  they  owe  their  freedom  to  the  self- 
denying  labors  of  such  men  as  Mr.  Fee,  President 
Fairchild,  Prof.  Rogers,  and  that  class  of  men 
throughout  the  country  who  are  sustaining  Berea 
College.  They  know  we  are  their  friends  and  that 
we  will  not  deceive  them.  They  believe  in  our 
political  principles,  and  though  they  find  it  diffi- 
cult in  their  modesty  to  associate  with  white 
people  on  terms  of  equality,  they  believe  in  the 
principle,  and  rejoice  to  see  it  wrought  out. 
They  have  their  own  church  relations  and  modes 
of  worship,  and  are  attached  to  them  like  other 
people,  and  will  not  easily  fall  in  with  any  ideas 
or  modes  that  are  new  to  them.  Yet  we  are 
welcome  always  to  all  their  religious  gatherings, 


74  BEREA   COLLEGE,   KT. 

and  they  rejoice  to  hear  the  counsels  we  have  to 
give.  Like  all  uneducated  people,  they  will 
very  gradually  learn  to  appreciate  the  importance 
of  education.  They  will  not-  rush  into  every- 
thing good  more  than  other  people.  But  it  was 
never  the  privilege  of  any  Christian  laborers 
to  work  for  a  more  grateful,  impressible  and 
confiding  people. 

God  has  laid  upon  us  special  responsibilities 
in  regard  to  them.  Till  within  two  years  the 
State  has  made  no  provisions  whatever  for  their 
education,  and  the  provisions  now  made  are  en- 
tirely inadequate. 

They  have  no  share  of  the  general  school 
fund.  The  white  people  will  not  submit  to  be 
taxed  for  their  education.  There  is  no  general 
desire  for  their  education.  No  conventions  are 
held,  no  general  subscriptions  are  made  or  so- 
licited to  promote  it.  They  have  a  special  com- 
mon school  law,  which  denies  them  the  right  to 
vote  in  school  matters.  The  county  school  com- 
missioner, a  white  man,  has  the  sole  responsi- 
bility of  organizing  the  county  into  districts 
and  appointing  colored  trustees.  If  he  is  in- 
different or  reluctant  it  will  not  be  done.  The 
fund  provided  by  the  law  has  thus  far  amounted 
to  only  fifty  cents  a  scholar  for  the  year.  This 
furnishes,  in   a   district  of  fifty  scholars,  only 


THE    COLORED    PEOPLE.  75 

twenty-live  dollars  to  keep  up  the  school  u  year. 
"White  districts  receive  one  dollar  and  ninety 
cents  a  scholar.  It  is  a  question  whether  this 
school  law  is  of  any  benefit  Vv^hatever  to  the  col- 
ored people.  It  produces  great  dissatisfaction, 
as  it  ought  to,  and  the  money  it  furnishes  hardly 
compensates  for  the  trouble  it  makes.  Two 
other  features  of  the  law  exhibit  the  spirit 
which  dictated  it.  A  colored  school-house  in 
the  country  must  not  be  within  a  mile  of  a  white 
school,  nor  in  towns  within  six  hundred  feet. 
Also  it  is  unlawful  for  a  colored  child  to  attend 
a  white  school,  or  for  a  white  child  to  attend  a 
colored  school.  This  law  is  a  fair  indication  of 
the  interest  of  the  people  of  the  State  in  the 
education  of  the  colored  people.  To  the  honor 
of  the  city  of  Louisville  it  should  be  said  that 
within  two  years  much  zeal  has  been  exhibited 
in  the  establishment  of  colored  schools.  They 
have  erected  two  large  and  commodious  school 
buildings,  which  are  filled  with  pupils,  and  teach- 
ers are  well  paid.  A  third  large  school  is  taught 
in  a  less  commodious  building,  and  a  fourth  in 
the  large  building  erected  by  the  Freedmen's 
Bureau.  The  colored  people  have  not  their 
equal  share  in  the  management  of  the  school,  as 
they  ought  to  have,  but  they  are  allowed  a  Visit- 
ing Committee. 


76  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KT. 

Lexington  also  has  made  a  good  beginning 
within  a  year,  and  has  maintained  eleven  teach- 
ers, who  have  had  less  than  half  the  pay  of 
white  teachers.  Six  of  these  teachers  are  stu- 
dents of  Berea  College,  as  are  a- large  proportion, 
perhaps  a  majority,  of  the  colored  school  teach- 
ers in  the  State.  Other  towns  probably  have 
done  something  for  colored  schools,  but  if  so  it 
is  very  recently. 

"With  such  a  law,  and  with  the  public  interest 
it  indicates,  it  is  manifest  that  the  colored  peo- 
ple will  be  but  poorly  provided  with  schools,  un- 
less aid  comes  from  some  other  quarter.  In  a 
few  places  they  are  able  to  support  their  own 
schools,  but  the  most  of  them  are  very  poor. 
Ten  years  ago  they  were,  with  few  exceptions, 
entirely  destitute  of  property.  They  had  no 
homes,  no  lands,  no  stock  of  any  kind,  no  edu- 
cation, no  experience  in  business,  no  school- 
houses,  few  churches  and  no  teachers.  They 
were  in  the  midst  of  a  people  who  looked  upon 
them  as  their  property,  of  which  they  had  been 
wickedly  robbed.  They  had  always  declared 
that  the  negro  could  not  take  care  of  himself, 
and  were  disposed  to  make  their  declarations 
good.  Before  the  courts  they  could  neither  tes- 
tify, plead,  nor  judge,  but  were  entirely  at  the 
mercy  of  men  who  had  always  held  it  to  be 


THE   COLORED   PEOPLE.  77 

right  to  compel  negroes  to  work  for  whatever 
they  were  disposed  to  give.  It  is  not  strange 
that  a  people  so  circumstanced  are  not  yet  ahle 
to  sustain  their  own  schools.  ISTor  is  it  strange 
that  some  of  thera  are  not  able  to  see,  as  many 
wiser  people  are  not,  why,  having  paid  taxes 
like  white  people,  and  even  a  dollar  poll  tax 
more,  they  should  not  have  free  schools  as  well. 
These  poor  people  are  on  our  hearts  and  hands 
continually.  We  meet  very  few  who  give  any 
indications  of  caring  for  them  as  we  feel  we 
must.  A  few  noble  men  and  women  there  are 
in  the  State  who  see  and  deeply  feel  their  wants, 
and  will  do  to  the  extent  of  their  ability.  There 
were  always  such,  and  the  number  has  not 
greatly  increased.  In  proof  of  this  statement 
we  mention  the  fact  that  year  after  year  the 
State  Sunday-school  Convention  has  called  to- 
gether the  warmest-hearted  Christians  of  the 
State,  and  never  till  this  year  has  a  single  inquiry 
been  made  concerning  the  wants  of  that  most 
needy,  most  accessible  and  most  impressible  peo- 
ple constituting  one-third  of  the  population  of 
the  State.  And  this  year  it  was  not  in  the  pro- 
gramme, but  was  introduced  by  the  special  re- 
quest of  a  most  noble  Christian  gentleman,  who 
superintends  a  large  colored  Sunday-school  in 
Lexington,  and  takes  with  him  his  wife  and  a 


78  BERBA   CJOLLBGE,    KY. 

respectable  number  of  white  teachers.  There 
has  recently  started  a  similar  eflbrt  in  Paris,  and 
another  in  Nicholasville,  and  there  is  great  rea- 
son to  hope  that  the  iires  thus  kindled  will 
spread  till  they  envelope  the  State. 

It  devolves  on  Berea  College,  more  than  on 
any  other  power,  to  furnish  this  people  with 
teachers.  But  this  is  not  all.  We  feel  that  we 
must  do  something  to  aid  feeble  districts  in  the 
support  of  their  teachers;  and  we  have  already- 
promised,  or  rather  a  committee  appointed  by 
the  Faculty  has  promised,  between  twenty  and 
thirty  teachers,  that,  having  secured  all  they 
can  from  the  people  in  addition  to  the  State 
fund,  they  may  look  to  us  for  aid  in  providing 
for  them  a  moderate  compensation.  But  we  re- 
quire that  the  schools  shall  be  free,  so  that  no 
child  shall  be  excluded  on  account  of  poverty. 
For  this  aid  we  have  appealed  to  the  benevolent 
of  this  State  and  the  North. 

Last  year  many  of  our  best  teachers  spent 
their  long  vacations  in  other  labor,  because  the 
schools  that  needed  them  were  not  able  to  pay. 
Twenty  or  thirty  dollars  will  be  sufficient  to 
help  out  such  a  school. 

But  this  is  only  a  limited  and  temporary  effort. 
The  great  work  of  Berea  looks  to  a  vast  and 
fundamental  change  in  the  views,  tastes,  feelings 


THE  COLORED    PEOPLE.  79 

and  customs  of  society.  White  and  colored 
people  must  be  perfectly  equal  before  the  law. 
They  must  have  the  same  civil  rights,  and  be 
protected  alike  in  the  enjoyment  of  them.  We 
can  have  no  permanent  peace,  nor,  what  is  more 
important,  any  exalted  sense  of  honor  and  vir- 
tue, till  this  is  eiiectually  secured;  and  it  never 
can  be  secured  till  the  race  prejudice,  the  caste 
feeling,  the  spirit  of  domination  is  eradicated. 
It  seems  astonishing  that  a  white  man  can  pros- 
ecute a  colored  man  before  a  jury  exclusively 
white,  and  therefore  prejudiced,  and  see  nothing 
dishonorable  in  it.  Yet  so  it  is  all  over  Ken- 
tucky. A  colored  man  has  never  been  known 
to  sit  upon  a  jury  in  the  State;  the  laws  forbid 
it;  and  the  Governor  says  the  people  will  never 
tolerate  it.  Yet  few  see  anything  unjust  or  dis- 
honorable in  it,  or  any  cause  of  complaint  on 
the  part  of  the  colored  people ;  and  the  colored 
people  themselves  do  not  feel  it  as  they  would  if 
long  oppression  had  not  trained  them  to  it. 
White  people  feel  in  their  place,  controlling 
negroes,  and  it  is  a  mercy  that  the  colored  peo- 
ple are  able  to  endure  it  so  well. 

Colored  people  are  taxed  on  their  property 
the  same  as  white  people,  and  pay  a  dollar  more 
of  poll  tax;  but  the  governing  masses  of  the 
State  see  no  impropriety  in  it,  or,  if  they  do, 


80  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KY. 

they  have  not  sufficient  honor  to  protest  against 
it.  They  say  it  is  for  the  benetit  of  tlie  colored 
people ;  it  goes  to  the  support  of  their  schools. 
Yet  the}^  receive  for  their  schools  only  about 
one-fourth  as  much  per  scholar  as  poor  white 
people  do ;  and  the  feeling  seems  to  be  that 
even  this  is  more  than  could  reasonably  be  ex- 
pected. Few  feel  disgraced  by  the  publication 
of  such  laws;  few  see  any  impropriety  in  charg- 
ing colored  women  the  same  fare  as  others  and 
then  compelling  them  to  ride  in  the  smoking 
car;  or,  if  they  see  it,  they  have  not  the  honor 
to  object  to  the  injustice.  Very  few  are  able  to 
see  the  ridiculous  absurdity  of  taking  colored 
servants  into  the  ladies'  car,  and  excluding 
those  who  are  not  servants.  The  prevailing 
idea  or  feeling  is  that  all  colored  people  should 
take  the  position  of  servants ;  that  they  are  out 
of  their  place  when  appearing  anywhere  as  the 
equals  of  white  people.  They  must  not  eat  in 
the  same  restaurants;  nor  shave  in  the  same 
shops;  nor  sit  in  the  same  churches,  unless  dis- 
tinctly separated;  nor  stop  at  the  same  hotels; 
nor  attend  the  same  schools. 

These  distinctions  are  kept  up,  not  because 
colored  people  are  personally  disagreeable  to  the 
white  people.  There  is  little  such  feeling  at  the 
South.     Not  because  of  their  immorality ;  for  as 


THE   COLORED   PEOPLE.  81 

servants  they  are  admitted  everywhere.  It  is  sim- 
ply a  caste  feeling,  a  prejudice  of  position.  This 
feeling  controls  legislation,  it  blinds  judges  and 
juries,  it  corrupts  executive  officers,  it  biases 
witnesses.  Against  this  prejudice,  or  feeling,  or 
taste,  or  caste,  whatever  it  may  be  called,  Berea 
College  has  thoroughly  committed  itself,  and 
fulfills  one  of  its  most  important  missions  in 
mitigating  and  removing  it. 

This  it  seeks  to  do  through  its  students,  who 
carry  the  principles  and  feelings  here  imbibed 
to  all  parts  of  the  country ;  by  the  constant  ex- 
hibition of  perfect  equality  and  perfect  harmony 
to  all  visitors,  and  especially  to  thousands  at  our 
annual  commencements;  by  lectures,  addresses 
and  sermons  of  professors  and  advanced  students, 
to  colored,  and  white,  and  mixed  audiences, 
gathered  for  religious,  political,  or  educational 
purposes;  and  through  the  medium  of  a  weekly 
paper  published  at  Lexington,  and  jointly  edited 
by  colored  men  at  Lexington  and  professors  at 
Berea.  What  these  influences  are  accomplish- 
ing let  a  beholder  and  not  an  actor  answer. 
Prof.  A.  P.  Peabody,  of  Harvard,  closes  his 
very  able  article  in  the  Unitarian  Review,  on 
the  Coeducation  of  the  Races,  with  the  follow- 
ing paragraph : — 


82  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KT. 

Of  all  the  experiments  in  coeducation  that  have  been 
instituted,  we  regard  Berea  College,  in  Kentucky,  as  the 
most  important  in  its  sphere  of  influence  and  in  its 
prophecy  of  enduring  benefit  to  the  colored  race.  It 
has  carried  the  war  into  the  enemy's  camp,  and  has 
brought  its  whole  Christian  panoply  and  armament  into 
the  immediate  encounter  with  the  surviving  spirit  of 
slavery— a  spirit  made  all  the  more  virulent  by  the  de- 
struction ot'  its  bodv.  At  other  institutions  black  stu- 
dents are  admitted  to  an  equality  with  the  white;  at 
Berea  white  stmlents  are  admitted  to  an  equality  with 
the  black'  The  trustees  and  professors  at  Berea  can 
not  invite  their  white  neighbors  to  unite  with  them  in 
throwing  the  doors  of  their  Institution  wide  open  to  all 
that  choose  to  come.  They  must  first  gather  their  little 
flock  of  black  pupils,  with  a  very  few  white  youths  from 
their  own  or  friendly  families,  and  then  they  must  make 
their  light  shine  bright  enough  and  far  enough  to  win 
the  regard  and  confidence  of  a  distrustful  and  scornful 
public,  and  to  demonstrate  to  that  unwilling  public  that 
it  is  for  their  own  and  their  children's  interest  that  they 
patronize  this  Institution.  This  has  been  effected.  The 
College  has  shown  its  large  educational  capacity.  Its 
public  exercises  have  been  attended  in  successive  years 
by  persons  of  established  reputation  as  educationists  and 
literary  men,  and  have  received  their  unqualified  com- 
mendation and  praise.  There  is,  for  many  miles  around, 
no  institution  of  learning  that  does  nearly  so  much  or  so 
well  for  its  pupils.  The  consequence  is  that  those  at 
first  vehemently  opposed  to  it  are  fast  falling  into  the 


THE   COLORED    PEOPLE.  83 

ranks  of  neutrals  or  friends.  Many  who  deemed  it  a 
nuisance  have  already  sent  their  children  to  it.  Its  ster- 
ling value  as  a  seminary  of  education  is  now  recognized 
on  all  hands.  But  it  is  of  much  more  worth  for  its  si- 
lent, yet  most  efficient,  propagandism  ot  the  due  rela- 
tion between  the  races ;  for  coeducation  includes  within 
itself,  or  involves  as  its  necessary  consequence,  equality 
in  all  civic  and  social  rights,  immunities,  duties  and  ob- 
ligations. 

Moreover,  a  State  in  which  white  citizens  already  seek 
for  their  children  the  privilege  of  coeducation  with  col- 
ored youths,  can  not  long  retain  its  hostility  to  public 
schools  common  to  both  races.  The  universal  establish- 
ment of  such  schools  in  the  late  slave  States  is,  as  we 
have  said,  essential  to  their  political  and  social  well- 
being:  and  for  the  advancement  of  this  end  Berea  Col- 
lege is  now  doing  more  than  can  be  effected  by  any  pos- 
sible legislation,  by  any  action  of  political  parties,  or  by 
the  combined  influence  of  press,  platform  and  pulpit. 

For  two  principal  reasons  we  advocate  the  co- 
education of  the  races.  1.  It  is  impossible  to 
educate  both  races  separately.  In  the  rural  dis- 
tricts it  is  impossible  to  maiutain  two  sets  of 
schools.  In  the  cities  it  may  be  done,  but  in  the 
country  it  can  not.  In  hundreds  of  districts 
there  are  very  few,  from  five  to  twenty -five,  col- 
ored children.  They  must  be  admitted  to  the 
schools  which  white  children  attend,  or  be  left 
without  schools.     In  other  districts  the  same  is 


84  BEREA   COLLEGE,   KY. 

true  of  white  children.  2.  The  separation  fosters 
a  spirit  of  contempt,  a)ul  haughtiness,  and  domi- 
neering on  the  one  side,  and  a  sense  of  debase- 
ment, and  a  spirit  of  sycophancy  or  surliness  on 
the  other,  entirely  inconsistent  with  the  highest 
good  of  either.  It  is  cruel  and  abusive  to  teach 
the  colored  children  from  the  very  beginning 
that  they  are  only  fit  for  servants  of  white  peo- 
ple, and  are  not  at  all  to  be  tolerated  in  the  same 
school-room  with  white  children.  Such  treat- 
ment will  never  make  them  self-respecting,  pa- 
triotic, independent  citizens. 

There  is  nothing,  in  the  absence  of  coeduca- 
tion, which  can  secure  the  mutual  regard,  confi- 
dence and  honorable  deportment  which  must 
exist  between  these  races,  if  we  are  to  have  a 
peaceful,  intelligent  and  virtuous  community. 

We  are  well  aware  that  in  seeking  to  work 
such  a  revolution  in  southern  society,  we  accept 
a  herculean  task.  We  are  not  greeted  with 
cheers  and  applause  at  every  step.  We  have 
learned  to  get  on  without  them.  We  know  that 
God  approves,  and  that  many  true  friends  pray 
for  us,  and  are  ready  to  share  the  burden.  We 
also  know  that  our  cause  will  triumph.  We 
have  seen  much  greater  revolutions  both  at  the 
North  and  the  South.  Forty  years  ago  the 
whole  nation  was  agitated  when  a  single  college 


THE   MOUNTAIN   PEOPLE.  85 

admitted  colored  students.  Xow  very  tew  col- 
leges at  the  North  reject  them.  In  common 
schools  the  change  is  hardly  less.  The  South 
will  change  more  rapidly,  for  there  is  little  color 
prejudice  to  be  overcome.  If  the  laws  of  the 
State  prohibiting  coeducation  were  repealed, 
many  districts  would  at  once  admit  the  few  col- 
ored children  they  have. 

THE  MOUNTAIN  PEOPLE. 

"When  we  speak  of  this  class  of  people  at  the 
North,  we  soon  hear  the  words :  "  Poor  white 
trash ! "  "We  wish  to  say  at  the  outset  that  they 
sustain  no  relation  to  that  miserable  class  of  peo- 
ple. The  "poor  white  trash"  have  sustained 
a  miserable  existence,  by  petty  jobs  and  petty 
pilfering  among  slaveholders,  and  were  despised 
by  the  slaves  themselves.  Kentucky  has  had 
but  a  small  share  of  them.  The  mountain  peo- 
ple have  been  almost  entirely  separated  from 
slavery  and  slaveholders,  and  have  had  little  in- 
terest in  them;  and  have  been,  in  the  main,  inde- 
pendent of  them.  Had  Kentucky  been  wholly 
a  slaveholding  State,  it  would  have  been  wholly 
a  rebel  State.  But  it  was  neutral ;  not  because 
its  individual  men  were  neutral,  but  because  its 
zealous  rebel  element  was  neutralized  by  a  union 
element  just  as   zealous.     The  mountain  men 


86  BEREA    COLLEGE,    KY. 

were  nearly  all  for  the  union,  and  some  counties 
furnished  more  union  soldiers  than  they  had 
men  liable  to  military  duty.  A  few  mountain 
men  were  violent  rebels,  and  a  few  slaveholders 
were  ready  to  sacrifice  everything  for  the  union. 
But  the  grand  division  was  between  the  moun- 
tains and  the  plains;  and  there  is  the  same  di- 
vision still.  The  mountain  counties  are  gener- 
ally republican,  some  of  them  almost  exclusively 
so;  and  the  Bkie  Grass  counties  are  democratic, 
their  white  population  almost  entirely  so.  Thus, 
though  the  mountain  people  were  not  abolition- 
ists, and  had  no  special  sympathy  with  the  col- 
ored people  as  slaves,  there  are  now  several  bonds 
of  union  between  them.  They  agree  in  politics, 
and  are  working  together  to  overthrow  tlie  aris- 
tocratic rebel  party;  and  they  are  destined  to 
succeed.  They  are  much  alike  in  their  style  of 
living.  Being  generally  poor,  thej^  are  obliged 
to  work  for  their  daily  Ijread,  and  enjoy  but  few 
of  the  luxuries  of  life,  and  look  with  the  same 
sort  of  jealousy  upon  the  aristocracy.  They 
have  alike  been  deprived  of  the  advantages  of 
education.  One-fourth  of  the  adult  population 
of  the  mountains  can  not  read.  The  rich  have 
had  little  more  interest  in  general  education  than 
in  the  education  of  their  slaves,  and  the  neglect 
is  felt  by  them  in  some  measure  alike.     They 


THE    MOUNTAIN    PEOPLE.  87 

feel  that  they  are  looked  upou  with  about  the 
same  haughty  contempt  by  the  shoddy  aristocra- 
cy, and  in  this  respect  they  have  a  fellow-feeling. 

It  is  from  the  mountain  people  that  the  most 
of  our  white  students  come.  It  is  generally  a 
great  trial  to  them  to  think  of  associating  with 
colored  people.  They  have  their  prejudices  to 
overcome.  But  they  find  it  easier  to  endure  it 
than  to  endure  the  manners  of  aristocratic  stu- 
dents. Probably  no  school  out  of  the  moun- 
tains has  so  large  a  representation  from  them  as 
this.  Nothing  but  poverty  prevents  their  com- 
ing in  large  numbers.  It  would  be  easy  to 
crowd  our  buildings  to  overflowing,  if  we  could 
assure  them  that  they  could  pay  their  expenses 
by  manual  labor. 

To  this  people  we  have  access.  We  are  in- 
vited to  their  Sunday-school  conventions  and 
teachers'  institutes;  and  their  churches  are  open 
to  us  when  we  choose  to  occupy  them.  They 
seek  our  aid  in  establishing  Sunday-schools,  and 
our  students  teach  many  of  their  day  schools. 
They  thankfully  receive  second-hand  libraries 
furnished  through  us  by  j^orthern  churches  and 
Sunday-schools.  About  twenty  Sunday-schools 
were  organized  in  a  single  year  through  the  in- 
fluence of  these  libraries.  It  is  a  very  simple 
way  of  accomplishing  much  good. 


88  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KY. 

As  the  State  common-school  system  improves, 
these  mountain  people  will  improve,  and  their 
political  power  will  increase.  There  are  among 
them  men  of  property,  and  education,  and  moral 
power ;  and  such  men  often  come  from  fifty  to  a 
hundred  miles  on  horseback  to  attend  our  com- 
mencements, and  carry  back  reports  of  what 
they  have  seen.  Often  they  come  with  their 
prejudices  and  return  without  them,  or  greatly 
modified. 

There  is  not  a  more  needy  or  important  field 
of  labor  than  these  mountains,  and  the  only  limit 
to  the  labor  we  can  perform  in  it  is  the  limit  of 
our  numbers,  time  and  strength.  The  majority 
of  the  people  live  in  log  houses,  and  probably 
half  of  them  in  houses  without  glass  windows. 
Their  school-houses  very  commonly  have  no 
windows,  and  often  no  doors,  and  sometimes  no 
floors.  In  traveling  through  six  counties  the 
writer  saw  but  one  painted  and  plastered  school- 
house.  Where  they  have  churches  they  usually 
liave  preaching  about  once  a  month,  and  their 
preachers  receive  little  or  no  compensation. 
They  are  commonly  laboring  men ;  and  nothing 
is  more  common  than  to  hear  them  assure  their 
hearers  that  they  are  not  indebted  to  their  "  book 
learning,"  but  to  the  Spirit  for  their  sermons. 
These  people  are  not  to  be  suddenly  transformed 


THE   MOUNTAIN   PEOPLE.  89 

to  an  intelligent,  industrious,  cultured  people. 
Half  their  schools  are  taught  but  three  months 
in  the  year,  with  few  books,  no  maps,  and  no 
blackboards,  and  by  teachers  poorly  qualified  to 
give  oral  instruction.  They  generally  have  no 
libraries  and  take  no  papers.  Those  who  are 
able  to  read,  read  but  very  little.  Frequently 
but  one  paper,  and  sometimes  not  one,  is  taken 
in  a  school  district.  The  most  hopeful  means  of 
doing  them  good  is  to  induce  many  of  their 
most  promising  young  men  and  women  to  go  to 
some  good  school  and  fit  themselves  for  teachers. 
This  is  the  field  of  Berea  College.  We  have 
had  students  from  ten  difierent  States  at  a  time, 
but  our  great  work  is  among  the  poor  people  of 
Kentucky.  Young  men  have  walked  sixty 
miles  to  get  here,  and  sometimes  without  a  dol- 
lar, hoping  here  to  find  work  to  pay  their  way. 
Two  young  men  came  sixty -five  miles  with  a 
pair  of  two-year-old  calves  before  a  cart  to  haul 
their  baggage,  and  a  boy  to  drive  the  team  back. 
A  young  mountain  woman  met  the  President  in 
the  street,  and  said:  "Is  this  Mr.  Fairchild?  I 
want  to  go  to  school ;  I  have  no  money ;  I  am 
an  orphan;  I  can  not  read;  I  have  three  uncles 
who  might  help  me,  but  they  think  I  had  better 
stay  in  the  mountains  and  work,  but  I  want  to 
know  something  as  well  as  other  folks."  "  Well," 


90  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KT. 

Bays  the  President,  "  are  you  willing  to  work  for 
your  board? "  "  Oh  yes,  I  am  willing  to  do  any- 
thing I  can.  I  am  not  much  used  to  house  work, 
as  they  do  it  here ;  but  I  can  hoe  corn  as  well  as 
anybody."  "How  many  hours  do  you  think 
you  should  work  in  a  day  for  j^our  board?"  "I 
don't  know;  you  know  better  than  I  do."  "Do 
you  think  five  hours?"  "That  looks  like  a 
right  smart  time;  but  I  am  willing  to  do  any- 
thing you  say."  "How  much  do  you  get  a  week 
for  your  work ? "  "A  dollar  a  week."  "How 
long  do  you  work?  Ten  hours?"  "Oh  yes;  I 
work  from  sun  up  to  sun  down,  and  more  too." 
"  "Well,  if  you  work  ten  hours,  and  half  of  that 
time  for  your  board,  that  would  leave  five  hours 
a  day  a  whole  week  for  a  dollar.  Now,  if  you 
had  the  money  to  pay  you  could  not  get  your 
board,  and  room,  and  washing,  and  fuel,  and 
lights,  for  less  than  two  dollars  and  a  half  a 
week.  So  you  see  that  if  you  work  five  hours  a 
day  for  your  board,  you  will  get  more  than 
twice  as  much  for  your  work  as  you  do  when 
you  work  in  the  mountains  for  a  dollar  a  week." 
"  Well,  I  am  willing  to  work  five  hours  and  more, 
if  you  say  so."  "  Now  I  advise  you  to  go  to  Mrs. 
H.,  and  tell  your  story  to  her,  and  tell  her  you 
will  work  five  hours  a  day  for  your  board,  Sun- 
days as  well  as  other  days,  if  it  is  necessary,  and 


THE   MOUNTAIN   PEOPLE.  91 

do  just  a8  well  as  you  can.  We  will  give  you 
your  tuition,  and  I  will  contrive  to  get  you  a 
book."  She  was  very  thankful,  had  good  suc- 
cess, and  near  the  close  of  the  first  quarter  the 
President  asked  her  how  she  was  getting  on. 
She  says:  "I  don't  know,  hut  I  think  right 
smart.  I  have  read  all  the  first  reader  but  four 
pages,  and  I  can  read  every  word.  I  didn't 
know  my  letters  when  I  began."  She  continued 
three  terms,  and  was  obliged  to  leave  to  earn 
money.  Another  year  will  make  her  a  school 
teacher. 

Another  mountain  girl  was  so  impressed  at 
commencement  that  she  told  her  mother  she 
must  go  to  school.  She  said  if  she  had  five  hun- 
dred dollars  she  would  give  it  all  to  be  able  to 
read  such  essays  as  some  of  those  young  ladies 
read.  Her  parents  had  no  money,  and  depended 
on  her  to  make  their  "crop."  But  she  found  a 
place  to  work  for  her  board,  and  in  emergencies 
went  home  to  help  about  the  crop,  and  with 
great  perseverance  and  determination  she  was 
enabled  in  two  years  to  teach  school;  and  a  year 
ago,  though  her  studies  are  by  no  means  com- 
plete, the  Mountain  JEcJio,  in  giving  an  account 
of  a  teachers'  institute,  rejDorted  her  as  having 
read  two  essays,  for  which  she  received  votes  of 
thanks;  and  made  a  statement  as  to  her  mode  of 


92  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KY. 

managing  a  school,  which  was  highly  compli- 
mented. We  must  not  multiply  individual 
cases,  interesting  as  they  are  to  us.  "  The  poor 
have  the  gospel  preached  to  them." 

The  mission  of  Berea  College  also  embraces 
efforts,  through  its  professors,  to  promote  Chris- 
tian union  and  vital  piety.  A  State  association 
has  been  organized,  called :  "  The  State  Associ- 
ation of  Christian  Ministers  and  Churches  of 
Kentucky,"  which  holds  meetings  semi-annually, 
and  has  published  resolutions  and  an  address  on 
the  subject  of  Christian  Union,  which  have 
called  forth  favorable  comments  from  individu- 
als in  several  States.  The  association  is  small, 
but  we  hope  not  useless. 

Our  great  desire  is  to  aid  in  elevating  the 
standard  of  holy  living;  to  promote  Christian 
activity,  through  Sunday-schools  and  prayer- 
meetings  ;  to  encourage  family  prayer  and  more 
regard  for  the  Sabbath;  to  promote  temperance 
and  abstinence  from  deadly  weapons.  Two  of 
the  greatest  evils  of  Kentucky  are  whisky  and 
pistols.  Fights  are  frequent  in  which  somebody 
is  killed,  and  seldom  is  there, any  investigation 
by  magistrates  or  grand  j  uries.  Most  men  drink 
occasionally  and  many  excessively.  Yet  there  is 
considerable  interest  on  the  subject  of  temper- 
ance, and  many  voting  districts  (we  have  no 


THE    MOUNTAIN   PEOPLE.  93 

townships)  have  voted  no  license,  according  to 
the  provisions  of  the  local  option  law.  The 
Glade  District,  in  which  Berea  is,  voted  no  li- 
cense, by  a  majority  of  four  to  one.  Many 
drinking  men  voted  no  license. 

The  religion  of  the  South  is  such  as  might  nat- 
urally be  expected  to  accompany  the  system  of 
slavery.  Christians  who  practiced  and  defended 
slave-holding  should  not  be  expected  to  have  very 
exalted  ideas  of  love  to  God  and  man.  They 
probably  feel  the  need  of  religion  as  much  as 
any  people,  and  contrive  to  have  it  in  some 
form;  3'et  it  would  not  be  strange  if  they  should 
shrink  from  bringing  their  lives  very  near  to 
God  in  the  prayer:  "Search  me,  0  God,  and 
know  my  heart,  and  see  if  there  be  any  evil  way 
in  me."  There  seems  to  be  much  lack  of  prayer. 
Family  worship  is  the  exception,  and  by  no 
means  the  rule  in  Christian  fuiailies.  A  promi- 
nent Presbyterian  preacher,  well  known  in  Ken- 
tucky, had  been  spending  a  Sabbath  in  a  village 
of  two  thousand  inhabitants,  where  churches 
are  abundant,  and  the  elder,  b}'  whom  he  was 
entertained,  expressed  the  belief  that  his  family 
was  the  only  one  in  the  town  which  kept  up  a 
family  altar.  This  was  probably  a  mistake ;  yet 
it  is  the  belief  of  intelligent  preachers,  who  have 


94  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KY. 

traveled  extensively  in  the  State,  that  very  few 
Christian  families  maintain  family  worship. 

Thus  far  no  wave  of  sorrow  for  the  sin  of 
slavery  has  spread  over  the  churches,  as  there 
surely  will,  when  God  pours  upon  his  people,  in 
mighty  torrents,  "  a  spirit  of  grace  and  supplica- 
tions; and  they  shall  look  on  Him  whom  they 
have  pierced." 

THE  KU-KLUX 

Have  never  paid  us  a  visit.  Many  rumors  of 
their  hostile  intentions  have  reached  us,  and  ru- 
mors that  our  College  buildings  and  some  of  our 
private  houses  had  been  burned,  have  spread 
through  the  country ;  but,  from  what  we  knew 
of  their  operations  near  us,  we  did  not  apprehend 
any  disturbance  from  them.  For  a  year  or  two, 
about  1870  and  later,  the  country  was  completely 
under  their  control.  There  was  no  protection 
for  anybody  against  whom  their  violence  Avas 
directed.  One  night  they  took  possession  of 
Richmond,  to  the  number,  as  was  said,  of  a  hun- 
dred and  fifty  or  more,  took  a  man  from  the 
jail,  who  had  given  himself  up  to  the  authorities 
and  was  awaiting  trial,  and  hung  him  in  the 
Court  House  yard;  and  pinned  an  order  upon 
his  back,  directing  that  he  should  hang  there 
till  four  P.  M.  the  next  day;  and  there  he  hung, 


THE   KU-KLUX.  95 

in  a  village  of  fifteen  hundred  inhabitants,  where 
hundreds  were  passing  every  hour,  till  the  time 
appointed,  no  authority  venturing  to  interfere. 
It  was  said  that  the  man  was  a  desperado,  and 
had  killed  several  persons,  and  deserved  to  be 
hung.  It  may  have  been  so,  but  it  is  claimed 
by  others  that  he  had  acted  in  self-defense.  The 
best  place  to  ascertain  those  facts  was  in  the 
Court  House,  by  the  appointed  authorities,  and 
not  at  midnight,  by  a  band  of  lawless  rufiians. 

One  night  they  took  two  negroes  from  the 
jail,  whipped  one  and  hung  the  other,  and  ordered 
that  he  should  hang  till  eleven  A.  M.,  and  then 
be  buried  on  a  certain  farm  near  Silver  Creek, 
and  the  order  was  obeyed. 

They  hung  a  man  one  Saturday  night  within 
three  miles  of  Berea.  It  was  rumored  that  he 
bad  participated  in  a  murder  during  the  war, 
but  there  was  never  an  investigation. 

To  record  all  the  accounts  that  have  reached 
us  of  their  lawless  violence  would  fill  a  book. 
Their  object  was  not  robbery,  as  some  have  sup- 
posed; nor,  in  this  region,  did  it  seem  to  be  po- 
litical; nor  was  their  attention  directed  espe- 
cially against  the  colored  people.  They  had  old 
grudges  to  avenge,  and  new  misdemeanors  to 
regulate ;  and  it  appeared  as  if  many  prominent 
men  preferred  that  method  of  keeping  things  in 


96  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KY. 

order.  The  negroes  were  constantly  in  alarm, 
and  white  Republicans  nearly  as  much  so,  for  it 
was  understood  that  neither  of  those  parties  was 
represented  in  the  bands. 

These  organizations  seem  to  have  disbanded 
two  or  three  years  ago,  soon  after  a  large  num- 
ber of  them  had  been  arrested  by  United  States 
authority.  Much  opposition  was  made  to  this 
interference  of  the  General  Government,  as  was 
to  be  expected;  but  the  General  Government 
never  performed  a  more  humane  or  timely  deed. 
The  whole  State  was  under  the  control  of  the 
Ku-Klux  for  years,  very  many  murders  were 
committed,  and  innumerable  deeds  of  violence; 
and  in  some  places  they  are  the  terror  of  the 
people  still ;  yet  if  a  single  member  of  the  Klan 
was  ever  punished  by  the  State  authorities,  it  has 
not  come  to  our  knowledge.  This  is  not  to  be 
charged  altogether  to  the  indifference  or  collu- 
sion of  State  officers.  If  they  were  ever  so  much 
disposed  to  punish  them,  it  would  be  very  diffi- 
cult. They  are  so  numerous  and  have  so  many 
sympathizers  that  no  man  likes  to  expose  him- 
self to  their  wrath  by  exposing  them. 

ANNOYANCES. 

Those  very  common  annoyances  of  tramps 
and  burglars  we  are  entirely  exempt  from;  being 


ANNOYANCES.  97 

too  poor  to  present  a  temptation,  or  too  remote 
from  the  railroad  for  their  convenience.  Our 
beggars  we  soon  become  acquainted  with,  and 
have  seldom  a  new  case  to  investigate.  Petty 
pilfering  exists  to  some  extent,  but  is  by  no 
means  common.  President  Fairchild  declares 
that  for  two  or  three  months,  while  he  was  build- 
ing, his  furniture  was  so  exposed  that  many 
things  might  easily  have  been  taken ;  that  they 
seldom  lock  their  house  when  all  the  family 
leave  it,  which  is  commonly  several  times  a  week; 
that  their  barn  is  always  open ;  that  tools  are  ex- 
posed all  over  the  premises ;  that  their  garden  is 
accessible  from  various  directions,  and  much  of 
it  is  invisible  from  the  house ;  yet  in  six  years 
not  the  smallest  article  has  been  missed. 

The  most  serious  annoyance  of  Berea  is  the 
riding  through  the  streets  of  intoxicated  men, 
shouting  and  occasionally  firing  their  pistols, 
not  careful  where  the  balls  may  strike.  This 
has  greatly  diminished,  and  is  chiefly  confined 
to  seasons  of  fairs  and  exciting  elections. 

The  disposition  to  injure  Berea  seems  to  have 
passed  away.  For  several  years  the  inhabitants 
have  felt  as  safe  as  the  inhabitants  of  most 
Northern  villages.  If  we  have  more  armed 
rowdies,  we  have  less  robbers  and  burglars 
There  is  great  respect  for  women  in  Kentucky. 


98  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KY. 

There  is  probably  no  place  where  they  are  more 
safe. 

It  is  exceedingly  wonderful,  and  according  to 
human  calculations  unaccountable,  that  during 
all  these  years  of  opposition  to  Berea  and  her 
people,  not  a  hair  of  any  head  of  any  one  of 
them  has  perished.  Any  good  people,  who  would 
like  a  pleasant  Southern  home,  with  unlimited 
opportunities  for  usefulness  and  superior  educa- 
tional advantages,  would  be  foolish  to  avoid 
Berea  from  fear  of  violence. 

OSTRACISM. 

It  is  the  common  lot  of  most  teachers  of  col- 
ored schools,  and,  to  some  extent,  of  business 
men  from  the  ISTorth,  to  be  isolated  and  deprived 
of  all,  or  nearly  all  white  society.  It  is  not  so 
here.  While  many  people  undoubtedly  have  no 
desire  to  cultivate  our  acquaintance,  we  have 
right  about  us  more  white  Kentucky  friends  of 
excellent  character,  who  invite  us  to  their  houses, 
than  we  have  time  to  visit  as  we  desire.  Some 
of  the  principal  families  in  Richmond  exchange 
visits  with  us,  and  some  in  Lexington,  and  some 
in  Louisville,  and  so  in  many  places  through  the 
Blue  Grass  region  we  are  welcomed,  and  almost 
everywhere  in  the  mountains. 

Our  business  relations  with  Kentucky  people 


REGULATIONS.  99 

are  as  agreeable  as  could  be  desired.  Our  pat- 
ronage is  sought,  and  credit  is  offered  us  to  suit 
our  convenience.  Banks  accommodate  us  cheer- 
fully and  bountifully,  with  no  other  security 
than  our  signatures.  Of  course  we  pay,  or  our 
credit  would  fail  very  soon.  We  have  no  reason 
to  think  that  our  credit  is  in  the  least  affected 
by  the  fact  that  most  of  us  are  Northern  men. 

The  reputation  of  the  College  as  a  school  is 
also  good.  It  is  perfectly  common  to  hear  it 
called  the  best  school  in  the  State.  Of  course 
all  such  compliments  are  received  with  much 
allowance  for  carelessness  of  language,  and  want 
of  information  in  regard  to  the  schools  of  the 
State;  just  as  when  a  horse  is  said  to  be  the  best 
in  the  county,  when  three-fourths  of  the  good 
horses  in  the  county  have  never  been  seen.  But 
though  as  compliments,  such  expressions  will 
hardly  bear  criticism;  as  indications  of  feeling 
they  are  significant. 

REGULATIONS. 

A  little  book  of  rules  is  given  to  every  student 
on  entering  the  school.  It  is  unnecessary  to  give 
quotations  from  these  rules,  but  a  few  general 
statements  may  be  desirable. 

Applicants  for  admission  to  the  school  must 
bring  certificates  of  good  moral  character,  and 


100  BEREA   COLLEGE,   KY. 

students  must  maintain  such  a  character,  not 
only  while  in  school,  but  during  their  absence  in 
vacation.  They  are  required  to  abstain  entirely 
from  the  use  of  intoxicating  drinks,  and  are  not 
allowed  to  use  tobacco  in  or  about>  the  College 
buildings  or  premises,  or  in  other  public  places. 
They  are  advised  to  give  up  tobacco  entirely, 
and  the  most  of  them  do.  They  are  also  pro- 
hibited from  frequenting  all  places  of  public  re- 
sort, or  absenting  themselves  from  any  school 
duties,  or  leaving  town  without  permission  ;  and 
young  men  are  required  to  be  in  their  own  rooms 
after  ten  o'clock  at  night,  and  young  ladies  after 
half  past  seven,  during  the  fall  and  winter,  and 
eight  during  the  spring  term. 

No  secret  societies  are  allowed  in  the  Institu- 
tion, and  students  are  not  allowed  to  have  any 
active  connection  with  such  societies  while  in 
attendance  at  the  school. 

The  religious  exercises  upon  which  students 
are  required  to  attend  are  one  preaching  service 
and  a  Bible  class  upon  the  Sabbath,  a  religious 
lecture  or  sermon  on  Tuesday,  and  a  Bible  class 
on  Thursday,  and  daily  prayers,  in  the  morning 
at  their  boarding  places,  and  in  the  evening  at 
the  chapel.  At  all  these  exercises  there  is  al- 
most perfect  punctuality,  and  there  are  no  indi- 
cations that  they  are  felt  to  be  burdensome. 


REGULATIONS.  101 

The  uniting  of  the  two  sexes  in  the  same 
school  is  an  innovation  in  Kentucky,  and  the 
regulations  pertaining  to  their  social  intercourse 
are  among  the  most  important.  They  recite  in 
the  same  classes  when  pursuing  the  same  studies, 
and  attend  the  same  religious  exercises  and  scien- 
tific lectures,  but  do  not  belong  to  the  same  lit- 
erary societies,  nor  do  they  visit  each  other's 
societies  except  on  public  occasions.  They  must 
not  attend  each  other  to  and  from  religious 
meetings;  but  may,  with  special  permission,  at 
the  regular  monthly  scientific  lectures,  and  other 
occasional  public  literary  exercises.  They  take 
their  meals  in  the  same  dining  hall  and  at  the 
same  tables,  but  room  in  separate  buildings, 
about  sixty  rods  apart,  and  concealed  from  each 
other  by  a  grove  of  forest  trees.  They  must 
never  call  at  each  other's  rooms,  except  by  special 
permission  in  case  of  sickness,  on  pain  of  ex- 
pulsion. Young  men,  at  certain  designated 
hours,  may,  with  special  permission,  meet  young 
ladies  at  the  public  parlors ;  general  social  gath- 
erings are  occasionally  permitted;  and  some- 
times parties  are  allowed,  with  proper  supervis- 
ion, to  ride  to  the  mountains ;  but  single  couples 
are  never  permitted  to  ride  or  walk  by  them- 
selves. It  is  our  conviction,  after  much  experi- 
ence and   much   investigation,  that   in    a  well- 


102  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KY. 

managed  school  such  a  union  of  the  sexes  as  is 
here  described  is  profitable  to  both  parties,  and 
adds  much  to  the  interest  and  refining  influences 
of  all  social  and  religious  meetings.  The  young 
men  have  prayer-meetings  by  themselves,  as  do 
the  ladies  also,  and  they  have  a  weekly  young 
people's  prayer-meeting  in  which  both  unite. 
The  a  priori  theories,  which  many  hold  in  op- 
position to  the  coeducation  of  the  sexes,  are  gen- 
erally dispelled  by  a  little  of  the  proper  kind  of 
experience. 

EXPENSES. 

It  is  the  desire  of  the  Trustees  to  bring  the 
advantages  of  the  school,  as  far  as  possible, 
within  the  reach  of  all.  The  charges  for  room 
rent,  fuel,  and  incidentals,  are  barely  sufficient 
to  pay  expenses  and  keep  the  buildings  in  re- 
pair. The  highest  tuition  is  ten  dollars  and  a 
half  a  year,  and  provision  has  been  made  for 
free  tuition  to  a  large  number  of  the  needy ;  and 
the  probability  is  that  on  receiving  a  sufficient 
endowment  all  tuition,  except  in  instrumental 
music,  will  be  free.  Vocal  music  is  now  free. 
Board  is  nine  dollars  a  month,  barely  sufficient, 
with  a  large  number  of  boarders,  to  pay  the 
cost.  A  young  lady  is  furnished  with  board,  a 
furnished  room,  fuel,  lights  and  tuition  for  one 
hundred   dollars   a  year.     This   must   be  paid 


DONORS.  103 

quarterly  in  advance.  When  paid  monthly  in 
advance  the  expense  is  a  trifle  more.  The 
Bpecial  arrangement  of  one  hundred  dollars  a 
year  has  not  been  extended  to  young  men. 

In  thus  reducing  expenses  we  have  not  been 
unmindful  of  the  truth  that  that  which  cost 
nothing  is  generally  esteemed  to  be  worth  noth- 
ing. The  price  of  board  alone  at  the  lowest 
possible  rate  is  entirely  beyond  the  reach  of  the 
most  of  those  who  would  be  glad  to  patronize 
this  school.  One  hundred  dollars  a  year  to  the 
average  of  our  patrons  is  more  than  a  thousand 
dollars  to  the  average  of  those  who  send  their 
eons  and  daughters  through  college.  We  find 
it  necessary  not  only  to  make  expenses  as  low  as 
possible,  but  to  furnish  all  possible  opportunities 
for  students  to  defray  a  portion  of  their  expenses 
by  means  of  manual  labor.  Some  defray  half, 
and  some  more  than  half,  in  this  way.  Con- 
tributions to  enable  promising  youth  to  attend 
the  school,  who  would  otherwise  be  unable,  have 
been  among  those  most  gratefully  received. 

DOIS'OIIS. 

There  is  a  class  of  men,  and  women  too,  of 
whom  we  can  not  speak  as  we  feel,  without 
ofiense  to  them.  We  are  grateful  to  them  every 
day  and  cherish  their  names  in  our  hearts,  and 


104  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KY. 

feel  like  giving  them  here.  But  they  do  not 
sound  a  trumpet  before  them  when  they  give 
alms,  nor  do  they  wish  others  to  do  it  for  them. 
They  are  our  fellow-workers  in  this  labor  of  love, 
no  less  essential  to  it  than  those  on  the  ground ; 
and  evince  equal  faith  and  interest  in  it  as  the 
work  of  God.  Their  motives  are  not  appreciated 
by  a  portion  of  the  Southern  people.  A  South 
Carolina  editor,  after  having  been  kindly  enter- 
tained, and  led  through  the  principal  buildings, 
and  shown  all  that  he  wished  to  see,  gave,  in  his 
paper,  a  full  and  flattering  account  of  the  school 
and  the  buildings,  expressing  his  opposition,  of 
course,  to  the  coeducation  of  the  races,  and  then 
pronounced  the  whole  "the  work  of  iSTorthern 
spite."  We  hope  that  he,  and  some  others  like 
him,  may  live  to  appreciate  a  class  of  men  whose 
all-controlling  motives  are  entirely  above  their 
conception.  Many  good  men  regard  it  as  a  work 
of  real  but  mistaken  benevolence.  A  few  look 
upon  it  as  a  wonderful  work  of  God,  and  the 
number  of  such  is  constantly  increasing.  A  few 
only  have  sufliciently  identified  themselves  with 
the  work  to  feel  it  a  privilege  to  contribute  to  it. 
Probably,  outside  of  Berea,  the  State  of  Ken- 
tucky has  not  contributed  over  twenty-five  hun- 
dred dollars  to  this  school.  About  two  thousand 
of  this  came  from  Louisville.     We  have  reason 


PRESENT   WANTS.  105 

to  hope  for  larger  contributions  from  the  same 
source  before  many  months.  Among  the  most 
liberal  contributors  to  this  College,  we  may 
properly  name  two,  who  have  gone  to  their  re- 
ward, Gerrit  Smith  and  John  P.  Williston.  The 
former  had  recently  given  about  six  thousand 
dollars,  and  the  latter  had  continued  his  con- 
tributions for  many  years. 

PRESENT  WAi^TS. 

Next  to  provision  for  current  expenses,  the 
first  pecuniary  want  of  Berea  College  is  relief 
from  debt,  which,  though  not  hazardous,  is  con- 
stantly embarrassing.  We  greatly  need  a  new 
chapel;  the  present  is  very  uncomfortable  in 
winter,  and  not  suitable  for  such  a  school.  Five 
thousand  dollars,  in  addition  to  a  fund  already 
on  hand  for  that  purpose,  would  furnish  as  good 
a  chapel  as  we  need.  We  also  need  two  addi- 
tional school-rooms,  which  would  cost  about 
fifteen  hundred  dollars  each.  This  would  make 
us  comfortable  for  several  years.  Other  build- 
ings will  be  needed  by  and  by,  when  Kentucky 
18  ready  to  build  them. 

Our  library,  of  two  thousand  excellent  vol- 
umes, which  are  much  used,  needs  increasing. 
Our  cabinets  of  natural  history  and  mineralogy 


106  BEREA   COLLEGE,   KT. 

are  still  small,  and  our  chemical  and  philosophical 
apparatus  very  meager. 

By  vote  of  the  Trustees  a  special  effort  will 
immediately  be  entered  upon  to  increase  our  en- 
dowment. This  should  not  be  less  than  two 
hundred  thousand  dollars.  It  is  now  thirty-four 
thousand.  But  little  effort  has  been  made  in 
this  direction.  We  have  encouragement  from 
various  friends  that  an  appeal  to  them  will  not 
be  in  vain.  To  the  honor  of  Christianity,  and 
for  the  encouragement  of  those  who  may  follow 
us,  we  wish  to  bear  testimony  that  our  efforts  in 
raising  money  have  brought  us  into  contact  with 
many  such  glorious,  warm-hearted  men  of  wealth 
as  we  did  not  suppose  the  world  contained. 
"While  we  have  met  numerous  striking  illustra- 
tions of  the  saying,  "  It  is  easier  for  a  camel  to 
go  through  a  needle's  eye  than  for  a  rich  man 
to  enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven,"  we  have  found 
not  a  few  rich  men  to  whom  the  gates  are  wide 
open.  They  have  "made  to  themselves  friends 
of  the  mammon  of  unrighteousness,  who  shall 
receive  them  to  everlasting  habitations." 

Another  want  of  Berea  is  good  Christian  in- 
habitants to  surround  the  school  with  an  atmos- 
phere of  intelligence  and  Christian  love.  If 
there  is  any  place  where  a  life  of  energy,  purity, 
meekness,  love,  faith  and  patience  will  redound 


AMERICAN    MISSIONARY   ASSOCIATION.  107 

to  the  glory  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  men,  it 
ia  here.  Farmers,  mechanics,  fruit-growers, 
dairy-men,  if  you  desire  to  find  a  mild  climate 
and  a  pleasant  home,  but  especially  to  do  good, 
come  and  see  us. 

Our  last,  and  first,  and  greatest  want,  com- 
pared with  which  all  others  dwindle  to  insignifi- 
cance, is  the  blessing  of  God.  Without  this  we 
want  nothing  else,  we  ask  nothing,  we  can  do 
nothing,  we  can  hope  for  nothing.  If  He  had 
not  been  on  our  side  in  many  dangers  and 
straits,  we  should  have  failed.  If  He  go  not 
with  us  still,  we  shall  still  fail.  Reader,  please 
pray  for  us. 

AMERICAN  MISSIONARY  ASSOCIATION. 

We  can  not,  without  injustice  to  ourselves  and 
friends,  close  this  narrative  without  paying  our 
tribute  of  gratitude  to  that  association,  which, 
almost  from  the  beginning  of  Mr.  Fee's  labors 
in  the  State,  has  given  its  constant  support  to 
this  work.  Though  it  never  exercised  any  con- 
trol over  Berea  College,  and  can  not,  with  pro- 
priety, be  said  to  have  founded  it;  yet,  but  for 
its  pecuniary  aid,  and  its  perennial  stream  of 
encouragement,  counsel,  sympathy  and  cheer  in 
all  the  days  and  years  of  darkness,  danger,  doubt 
and  fear,  who  can  say  that  the  College  would 


108  BEREA   COLLEGE,    KY. 

ever  have  existed?   or  that   this  mission   could 
have  been  continued? 

And,  having  sustained  this  intimate  relation 
to  the  American  Missionary  Association  for  so 
many  years,  we  wish  to  bear  our  unqualified  tes- 
timony to  the  wisdom,  the  fidelity,  the  energy 
and  the  econom}'  with  which  it  has  prosecuted 
its  Southern  work.  It  was  in  this  field  with  the 
gospel  of  freedom  when  all  other  organizations 
working  here  succumbed  to  slavery ;  it  met  the 
first  contrabrands  with  schools  and  the  gospel  at 
the  opening  of  the  war;  and  it  has  been  the 
principal  agency  by  which  the  Southern  work, 
the  most  important  of  this  generation,  has  been 
carried  on  to  the  present  time.  We  wish  its 
patronage  w^ere  multiplied  many  fold.  Our  es- 
teem and  reverence  for  that  society  partake 
much  of  the  affection  of  children  for  parents, 
yet  we  believe  we  can  speak  of  its  work  with 
intelligent  impartiality. 


UC  SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


AA      000  260  957 


